Slovenia Hosts International High School Tournament

Ljutomer from above

Notice that at least one of the rounds will be in native languages or in commonly shared second languages. I like this innovation.

From Bojana Skrt:

INTERNATIONAL DEBATE WEEKEND
Ljutomer, Slovenia, 6th – 9th November 2008

ZIP, Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga, Slovenia and Gimnazija Franca Miklo_i_a Ljutomer kindly invite you to our traditional annual INTERNATIONAL DEBATE WEEKEND and International High School Debate Tournament in Ljutomer.

The debate format is Worlds School Debate Format. Majority of debate rounds in English.

However, to celebrate a year of intercultural dialogue one of the debate rounds will be multi – lingual. Pairings will be done on the basis of common language - should not be English - two teams are sharing. Hopefully, there will be possible that lots of teams will be able to debate in their native language. That is why it is essential everybody when applying, including judges, lists all the languages they can communicate in. We will invite Slovenian members of European Parliament and the Ambassadors of all participating countries to come and listen to these debates.

The topic areas: inter culture dialogue; inter religious dialogue; safe school. Motions for prepared debates and for the multi – language debate will be announced the first week in September.

We expect at least 50 teams to participate at the tournament. Please, have in mind that one team means 3 debaters. Everybody who comes needs to debate all the debate rounds. In case you have an extra debater, they will be put in the mixed debate teams – the vital issue is that everybody debates all the time. Teams (3 debaters) need to be accompanied by a judge, the rule is one or two teams one judge, three teams two judges.

As we would like to host debaters from as many countries as possible, we are limiting the number of teams per country to 3. However in case there is bigger interest in your country, please, contact us and we will see what can we do about it. Because ZIP can not make a selection when more teams apply from one country, we will accept only the applications sent by national debate organisations in cases where such organisation exists. We are going to close the registration when we reach the team cup, so please do not wait and register as soon as possible.

For all guests from other European countries the arrival day is Wednesday or Thursday the 5th or the 6th, the departure day is Sunday, the 9th of November. The tournament will be held on Friday and Saturday, the 7th and the 8th of November. The participants from oversees are invited to come earlier being guests of Slovenian debaters. It is expected that the teams coming on Wednesday participate in the classrooms on Thursday morning. There will be also some sight seeing organised and the optional practice debates and introductions to Worlds School Debate Format for the ones who are not so familiar with it.

Debaters will be offered home stays by Ljutomer debaters, judges will be placed in nearby hotel. The participation fee for person (debater and judge) is 30 EUR. The payments should be made in cash on the arrivals.

All the inquiries about the tournament and registration, please, address to me at bojana.skrt@siol.net, all the questions about Ljutomer, school, home stays, travel to Liana Miholi_, the coach of the Ljutomer English Debate Club at the liana.miholic@guest.arnes.si

At the end of this message please, find enclosed the tentative schedule. The application form is in the other attachment. Please, fill the application form and send it to bojana.skrt@siol.net as soon as possible but no later than 15th of October.

Looking forward seeing you in Slovenia.