There are two sub-competitions in WUDC, namely public speaking and debating. The team, consisting of members Vincentius Michael (Mathematics) and Mohammad Ilham Akbar (Architecture) competed in debating and won EFL (English-as-a-foreign language) as winner with capacity in critical thinking, public speaking, and broad knowledge.

“WUDC has been our target since the beginning of the year. We are interested because we are active debaters in national level and we want to accomplish what Indonesia students have never achieved before. The difference is, besides coming up as the winner, I received the title of EFL Best Speaker which no Indonesian have earned before,” said Vincentius.

They have to go through a number of phases before crowned as the champion. The competition is divided into two phases, the preliminary (participated by all teams, 9 rounds) and eliminary (participated by break team). In the end, they achieve the break and enter the EFL Semifinal. After going through the semifinal and final well, they were crowned as the champion.

“Best Speaker is selected based on accumulated score in the preliminary. Previously, I was crowned as Best Speaker in Indonesia in 2018 by Kemenristekdikti. When I received the title of Best Speaker in WUDC, I feel so happy and proud. This shows that Indonesians have equal capability with people from other countries,” Vincentius said.

As preparation, they spent times reading about hot issues in the world and analyzed national and international debate competitions before WUDC began.

“There are many themes in WUDC. All topics we debate over are impromptu topics which we just knew 15 minutes before the round began. The topic can cover many themes such as politics, economy, philosophy, education, international relation, etc. We were prohibited to use internet for research purposes within 15 minutes of casebuilding time (preparation time), hence we relied on preparation we made before the competition began,” he said.

The biggest challenge they faced in the process was the necessity to debate against institutions from English-speaking countries as it is more advantageous for those countries to make a more efficient and interesting speech. Hence, the team from ITB had to ensure their speech to be interesting, strategic, and have relevant content in order to win.

“Hopefully communities are inspired and aware that Indonesians are capable and smart. Communities hopefully also have a will to develop English proficiency, public speaking, and critical thinking. I also want to inspire ITB students that all of us can accomplish outstanding things outside our campus,” he said.

Reporter: Christopher Wijaya (Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, 2016)