GNS Debates in French and English

May 13, 2021

Academics

GNS

Recently, students participated in the Canadian National French Debating Championships and the Senior High Canadian National Debating Championships. The students did an amazing job and put in some hard work to prepare for their respective tournaments.

Charlotte Quinn ’23 and Alexander Muller Clemm ’21 took their debate skills to the French Provincials and Nationals. Charlotte said it was helpful to be partnered with Alexander, a seasoned GNS debater, and that she learned a lot watching him debate.

“I was listening to him talk and taking notes about his strategies in debate and will use them in the future,” she said. “He really helped me develop my points for the debate tournaments and how to elaborate on my points. It’s helped me and I find even in my head I can structure my ideas better.”

While debate tournaments have been virtual this year, Charlotte said it was still great to participate in them, noting in the French Nationals it was interesting getting to speak with others from across the country.

“The debate went super well,” she said. “Everyone was very nice and it was nice to be able to communicate with people across the country. We got to debate with people in Quebec, and I even met someone with the same French accent as me—because my family is from France. It shows how much diversity there is in the culture because there are people who learned French at school who speak it perfectly well, and there are native French speakers and Quebecers. All the different accents are so cool being in the same country.”

Charlotte joined debate for the first time this year and Nationals was her fourth debate tournament. She has found that debate gives her a good opportunity to work on her public speaking skills.

“I’ve always liked the idea of debating and arguing in a controlled manner,” she said. “Also, I find I’m not naturally that good of a speaker. My whole life I’ve been practicing public speaking…I do as many public speaking opportunities as I can to improve myself, and I think debate is a good skill in general.”

Alexander and Andrew Wale ’21 participated at the Senior High Canadian National Debating Championships from April 16 to 18, where they placed twentieth among all the teams in Canada.

“I enjoyed taking part in what will be my last tournament at GNS and my last tournament with Alexander,” said Andrew. “We’ve been debating together since Grade 8 and growing side by side as debaters and people. It was a really great experience.”

Andrew has been competing for five years and has enjoyed the time he’s spent being able to take part in these tournaments.

“I love the competition and the challenge that comes with pitting my ideas and arguments against my opponents,” he said, noting that Ms. Eslepth Easton has had a big impact on his debate career at GNS.

“Thank you to Ms. Elspeth Easton. She’s been our coach my entire time at GNS and has worked tirelessly to get us to where we are today,” he said. “I don’t think enough people appreciate the powerhouse she has made GNS into the past few years, all while competing with mere fractions of the resources available to most other teams. She is the one person behind GNS’s most successful competitive team.”

While it might be his last debate tournament at GNS, Andrew did have some advice for students in the coming years.

“Younger students need to learn to put themselves out there, accept the challenge no matter who you’re against,” he said. “Even if you lose terribly, there’s no chance you won’t be a better competitor for it.”

Great job to everyone who participated in debate this year! We can’t wait to see what happens next year!