The New York Sophist

Anything I say about the quality of the students that I have had the chance to meet, talk to, and watch debate during the tour will be lacking. I have had such a great combination of experiences – fun and exciting combined with intellectual stimulation – that it is hard to express my full appreciation for the students who hosted us and made it possible. But I’m going to try to detail the events as best I can.

First is Kyushu University in Fukuoka, they have an amazingly beautiful campus as seen here:

It’s a totally new campus, so everything was pristine. The debate was about banning mobile phones from those who are minors, and was attended by about 100 students. I gave a talk about the Second Life Debate and recieved a good number of criticisms and questions. Then we had an amazing reception with many delicious foods – I really enjoyed a kind of beef stew served over rice with okra. Simple flavors, but very delicious.

The students were very well organized, and very excited about the debate:

The girl on the right kept trying to convince me that I should eat natto, which is a sort of fermented soybean dish usually eaten for breakfast or maybe lunch. I haven’t become brave enough to do it yet, although I almost did this morning.

Kyushu University was a great stop on the tour, we were treated as honored guests, given a great debate, and hosted with a fabulous reception by some really outstanding debate students!

One of the best things about this stop was meeting Prof. Inoue, who really took a great interest in my studies and work, and we had a great conversation or 2 about University life. One of the most interesting stories he told me was how he judged a debate round alongside Charles Willard once. Amazing! He also printed for me a story about how Musashi used to live in Fukuoka City. He really took a personal interest in hosting us, and also handed us off very nicely to our next hosts.

Thank you Kyushu University!

I have only about 10 days left on the tour, and I must say it doesn’t seem like I’ve been in Japan that long. Of course, by now I am very anxious to get home to my regularly scheduled life, but at the same time I feel like I just arrived.

The tour is an exceptional experience, no doubt. I think that the key part that keeps it all together is the generosity and care of the host schools and host debaters. Everyone goes out of their way to make sure that we are entertained, fed and housed beyond anything we could have expected.

The most interesting element to me has been insight into how Japanese debate operates. They are still very committed to policy debate, but there are a few parliamentary teams here and there popping up. The future for Japan I think will have more and more parliamentary teams, but policy debate is so well supported at the student level that transition to parliamentary debate in total would be very difficult. The built in retirement system will see to it that debate continues uninterrupted at the student run level. The wildcards are the few programs that are directed by faculty. They might choose parliamentary debate, but I doubt it. The reason is that there are many more tournaments in the policy style (which they call academic debate). Nearly 4 or 5 to 1 in some areas, so if you want to teach debate, you simply must do policy debate to get a good number of tournament experiences.

I don’t have a preference myself, although Japanese policy debate really should be called and studied under the name “academic debate” because it is a fully different form. The evolution of Japanese debate took a very different turn at some point and developed its own theory and patterns of argument, as you can see from my earlier posts. I think that coming here with the expectation that the debate cultures are the same or even operate under the same limits and rules is not smart. Most debate students, for example, feel that a topical counterplan is equivalent to conceding the round.

I think it would make a fascinating study.

I am right now in the hotel lobby waiting on our ride to the university for another debate on the topic of equal pay for equal work. Tonight we fly to Tokyo and are there for a couple of days. I hope to be able to post some more pictures and give a great report on my next most anticipated stop on the tour – conducting a debate workshop for Toastmasters club members in Tokyo!!

Today was a very unique and exciting experience – teaching Japanese high school students. I started the day by (oddly enough) meeting Texans in the hotel lobby who are here in Fukoka just checking it out. We went to the school about 11, and then met the principal and had tea in her office and spoke with her while one of the English teachers translated. We then moved to the teacher’s lounge for lunch and worked on the debates with two Americans who are in the Japanese English Teaching program (JET) and work for the consulate. This was the first debate of the tour where the Americans were on opposite sides in the debate.

I regret not taking a video of this, but it was really unavoidable. I sat at the back of the room and took photos of the event, but it’s not the same as having a great video. The lecture went well, although I think I had trouble keeping my vocabulary to the level of 2nd year English students. There were a few frowning faces as I spoke, but I think it worked out well. The teachers seemed to enjoy it and thought it was good so I’m pleased. Many of the students’ questions were excellent and I enjoyed answering them. Overall it was an experience I won’t soon forget. It’s not every day you are invited to speak about debate to such a great group.

When we first arrived at the school, we were asked to remove our shoes before entering and to put on slippers. We were introduced to the Principal, who was very excited to see us. She welcomed us into her amazingly large office, and presented her business card to us in formal Japanese style. Then we sat, and she had one of the English sensei translate for her as she spoke to us for a while.

Here is the coolest part. She told us that before she was a principal, she taught Japanese history so she expected us to learn some before we left Japan. I told her about my interest in Miyamoto Musashi. She was surprised, and then told me that her first job was teaching at a school set up by and run by his descendants. That is, she taught along side of Musashi’s descendants. Oh man is that cool.

But that’s not all we learned:

The school day, we learned, is really long in Japan. There are tutoring sessions that begin at 7:30AM and class begins at 8:30. School goes until 4:15PM, but then there is after school tutoring, sports practice, clubs, and “cram” school in the evenings where students go to off-site places to learn even more to advance in their classes. Overall it seems the day ends around 8PM for these students, only to begin again in less than 12 hours.

I now have some free time, so I plan to check out a nearby shrine, then we are having dinner with some University students, then beers later with one of the Americans we met earlier.

We arrived on one of the cleanest and smoothest flights I’ve ever taken, including the leaving of the plane which was super fast, polite and orderly. I was so stunned when the plane emptied out in about 5 to 8 minutes.

My bags are suddenly overweight, which was a problem at check in, but it has been sorted out. I need to figure out some way of losing 7 kilos of cargo between today and Sunday. Not sure what the difference could be, but I have room in my backpack, so that should take care of it.

Suggestion to future Japan debate exchange students – pack light! There’s a lot of walking involved with suitcases. I did not follow this advice and now I have too much to carry around.

I am sitting in the prep room right now observing and taking pictures as we prepare to debate the Kyusyu JDA chapter in parliamentary style with light evidence. I sound like I’m writing a menu with a statement like that but it’s accurate!

The debate will be before about 150 University students who are studying english and/or intercultural studies. The topic again is banning the use of cellphones by minors in Japan, but this time the American team is Government.

The style is extemporaneous but many features of policy debate will be present such as cross examination and prep time, as well as rebuttals. After the debate I’m talking for about an hour on the potential of online/second life debating for the future.