Thursday, April 20, 2017

Insights into debate

Hello, guys. Let us try to speak our minds and search into our souls writing about impressions and comments either of the contents of our discussions in DEBATE class or anything you would like to contribute with...

34 comments:

  1. Hello, I wanted you to know that I really enjoyed last Wednesday’s class. I definitely consider those debates were the best speaking exercise as of now since the fact of there being no wrong answer encouraged us (or at least me) to express my opinion without the “fear” of being mistaken. Thank you!

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    1. Glad you could appreciate the nature of this type of activity. Good for you!

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  2. Even though the exercise was extremely intresting, I was unable to understand some of the topics you gave us to debate. So I wanted to make clear that If you noticed a lack of participation, It wasn´t because I was unintrested, I just didn´t know how to expand the topics. Thank you.

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  3. Hello everybody! To begin with I wanted to share my positive opinion about our first debate class. I found out the topics we've discussed really interesting! Besides I really appreciate to have the chance to improve speaking and other skills such as debating and daily life's opinions on a theme or topic. It is paramount to have a posture on a theme and to be able to defend it till the end. Moreover, In order to our language classes I feel that I am really improving and that this long way just begins! So let's continue utterly dedicated to improve. Good night

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  4. Hello! Good afternoon. Having just finalized our second debate class I find it out that we need to controle the time we spend to defend our opinion. For instance some people spent too much speaking and I personally got lost with what they were trying to say, and this also makes the debate seem like a monologue and not a debate at all. Besides, in regards to the first activity we did my opinion is that we should change our partner after every discussion. I mean, I discuss about abortion with Lucia and then change to another topic and discuss it with Pilar and that way around. So with this we all have the chance to discuss with everyone and get to know different opinions and talk with people we don't usually talk with. Have a good day! Kisses

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  5. The exercise we did in today's class was interesting at first but then you just don't have anymore new arguments to keep debating with our classmate. Personally, I prefer the exercise with the signs, it's more interactive with the whole class that way.

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  6. Hello, I wanted to tell you I liked both exercise we did today. Mostly the second one, which had the signs on each corner of the class because it is a better way to share our thuoghts with the rest of the class. Also, it gave us the chance to chose whether we agreed or not on the topic wereas in the first one we had to rebut what the other person told us. Thank you, good night.

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  7. Hi! I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed having this type of class and speaking an interesting topic each week. Especially, the exercise which we have to go to the sings on each corner. However, I find the topics quite tricky to understand. Thank you, have a good day.

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  8. Hi! I just wanted to express my opinion about the two exercises we have done so far. Referring to the exercise in which there were different signs, although at the moment I’m not able to put forward some arguments for or against to support my posture because it’s difficult for me to express myself, I’ve enjoyed the fact that nothing that you’d say is going to be right or wrong and that we get to know other people’s opinions about certain topics which can change your mind as well. Regarding to the other exercise where we had to rebut a statement which was given by one of our mates, I consider it more difficult than the other because, this time, I couldn’t choose a posture and I had to invent an argument in a matter of seconds because most of the time I was in agreement with my partner.

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  9. Hello everyone, I want to express my opinion on our debate class. I found this activity engaging as everyone could show their viewpoint of the topics. It was enjoyable because we were able to choose if we agreed or not in the topic so there was a constant argument. I appreciate the fact that there was no wrong or right answer and the fact that this is the best way to practice speaking.

    Also, I wanted to share my summarized speech for the topic we saw the other class: you will be happier if you stay unmarried:

    Although I do not think that happiness is not commanded in being married or by not, I am in disagreement with this statement because having a person with you all your life makes you delighted. This person looks after you, accompanies you in trips and shares wonderful projects that you both like. In addition, you might have more benefits regarding love, family and money.


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  10. I dare say that I partly agree with this statement, even though I don’t think I could be able to do it; as Dante said: a lot of people agree with this but keeps eating meat.

    On the one hand, I believe that we have no power to kill animals by any means not even to eat them, every human being has the right to live.

    On the other hand, many doctors mentioned that meat is essential to children’s lives because it gives you a lot of protein which is a great benefit to grow healthy. However, an investigation worked on this topic and revealed that, in the future, an artificial meat will be created which will provide the same nutrients as the natural one.

    To sum up, we could conclude saying that children should eat meat to develop nutritious and after that, they could stop eating it.

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  11. Today's topic was more about real facts rather than opinions. Although some of the arguments in favour of the quote "everyone should be vegetarian" were pretty convincing, such as the point of the vibrating cells, I havent changed my mind. Nevertheless, now I am better informed about this topic, and I would feel more comfortable talking about it. thank you!

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  12. After discussing the quote "all people should be vegetarian" I dare say that I´m in disagreement, not only because meat is almost irrepleaceble in the human diet but also because of the fact that people who find this statement true and aren´t vegetarians are being quite a little hypocrite.
    However I got to know lots of new arguments (specially from people who were in agreement) that made me doubt if I should change my final decision, even though I haven´t.

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  13. I find this subject very dynamic, controversial and interesting. Although I would personalty appreciate more time to speak, I fully understand that all persons have the right to speak their minds. The debate, which took place today, about vegetarianism is did not intrigue me as much as the previous debate on marriage we had last week, however I always enjoy sharing my views with my peers. I was surprised, yet amused, with how passionate some class members were when discussing this topic and how well informed they were. It is safe to day that next Wednesday I will be well prepared and eager to formulate a persuasive and informed point of view.

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  14. I thought today's topic was a lot more debatable than the others we did before. It was interesting to see what others thought about it, and I agree with what Lu commented about sharing actual facts instead of opinions. However, because it is so controversial I don't think we will all 100% agree on an affirmation like this one since it's not all black and white. I wanted to share an extract of an article I found that I forgot to mention in class: "Nowadays, plant-based eating is recognized as not only nutritionally sufficient but also as a way to reduce the risk for many chronic illnesses." from http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian

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  15. In my view today´s topic was the most interesting one. When talking about vegetarians, in the one hand there are health facts, in the other hand, there are moral opinions, cultural and ethical. When I did my research I got to the conclusion that I see eye to eye with this statement that we should all be vegetarians and I still do. Even though I usually eat meat without feeling guilty, I bear in mind the suffering animals have and the possibility we have to let other beings leave in peace and feed ourselves with other meals that give us the same benefits meat gives or use supplements of vitamins or proteins if necessary. What convinced me the most about today´s debate was the disadvantages it has in my health and what it was said about the movements of the atoms that influence my mood which I didn´t know.

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  16. Hi everyone! In order to what we'be debated today, at the beginning I agree with the statement "All people should be vegetarian" but at the end I changed my mind due to all the things I heard. As I said I believe that humans are being selfish with nature as they only think about their needs (of proteins or whatever) and do not thing in the animal's feelings. Moreover, My sincere opinion is that since the creation of the world animals have been the principle food for humans so it shall remain being like that. Kisses

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  17. I consider that the theme of today was the most interesting and productive of all that we discussed so far. This is because many of us proposed different ideas about being or not a vegetarian. I still disagree whith this statement and the reason is because although there are many different supplements for proteins, our body could react in a negative way to them. I hope to have more debates like these in the future

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  18. I personally stand in favour of the statement that "all people should become vegetarian", although I still have certain concerns.
    Firstly, vegetarianism has its advantages and aids both the environment, alongside fauna, and human beings. As discussed in class, vegetarian diets actually bring various benefits to us, such as weight loss, prevention of heart diseases and skin health. Likewise, there are several supplements or replacements for meat, which contain the same amount of iron and protein our bodies need, not necessarily produced in laboratories (for instance, there are some cereals which provides the vitamin B12, which we usually get from meat). Moreover, our organisms are not as well-prepared as carnivores to digest meat, since our intestines are not large enough; therefore, meat-free regimes do not damage our physique. In case a person who has certain medical conditions (diabetes, celiac disease), they should appeal to a registered dietitian to create an appropriate nutrition plan.
    At the same time, vegetarianism causes a decrease in the demand of meat-products since people cease to buy these kinds of goods. Consequently, the industrial slaughter houses need not have large cattle thus avoiding the cruel death of thousands of animals.
    I am aware, however, that the 7.5 billion people on this planet will not become vegetarian because of this argumentation. We have all eaten meat and the majority enjoys it, and will probably continue on eating hamburgers or asado after this debate. We, as animals, are included in the food chain. Herbivores feed on plants, carnivores feed on herbivores and humans feed on both. The huge problematic arises when we begin damaging the environment with the contaminating processes we apply on meat to make it edible and slaughter large quantities of livestock. We should at least question these unethical methods and consume meat, eggs and poultry from cruelty-free companies.

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  19. I believe the statement "All people should be/become vegetarian" was one of the most interesting topics we have had so far. And still I will agree with it is because being vegetarian brings more benefits than shortcomings, for instance, a vegetarian diet reduces the chances of developing health issues, promotes weight loss, and it's more environmentally sustainable than livestock.

    Despite the fact, that vegetarians suffer from lack of proteins (and some vitamins) due to its lack of meat in their diet, nowadays, there are new alternative sources where we can found this nutrient. As an example we have Vitamin B-12, which is a rare vitamin especially found in meats, but, it can be also found in present fortified foods, including cereals, soy milk and in tofu.

    Someone said in class (can't remember who) something interesting about an hypothesis stated by an university saying plants can feel pain. But, according to Daniel Chamovitz, dean of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, plants can feel themselves being eaten, they just don't have the capacity care about it.
    He says the idea that damage has to be pain is mistaken. We feel pain because we have specific types of receptors called nociceptors which are programmed to respond to pain, not to touch. People can have genetic malfunctions where they feel pressure but never feel pain because they don't have pain receptors. They only have pressure receptors that allow them to know when they're being touched or moved by nerve cells called mechanoreceptors.

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  20. Regarding last debate´s class in which we discuss "homework should be banned", I dear say I see eye to eye with this statement. I believe the time we spend each day at school, that is ten hours approximately, should be enough to learn everything we need not have homework. We spend more time at school than in our homes and in addition me have homework. In my view, is not the students fault that teachers do not get to manage their time and teach all the information they have to. Despite this, I would also say that if a student does not pay attention in class or is disturbing, which leads him/her not finish his/her duties, we cannot complain about the homework issue. To sum up, I disagree with the idea of giving extra homework but I have nothing to say if the homework due for a behaving or timinig issue.

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  21. In today's class (Wednesday 24th), we discuss two statements. The first one that I will talk about is "Ill health begins in the mind". By reading it the first time, I do not see eye to eye with it but if we think deeply we could see that is actually true. Why is this? Let me explain you by giving a simple example. If you are getting stress, nervous or perhaps depress our body immediately starts to fail. The symptoms that could appear are: headache, sickness, hair loss, etc.
    To sum up, even though, the first time I was in disagreement I can see that there are reasons to support this statement.
    Now, moving to the another statement which is "Real learning does not occur in the classroom", I have to say that there are two ways of explaining what is "Real learning". Firstly, because you can see it as the things that you can learn outside the school, which are values, manners, the things that are right and wrong, sharing. Even though, we also can learn it at school too. However, the institutions their main aim is to teach and nurture the students so that they are prepare for college. For example, maths, history, science. Furthermore, the meaning of "learning" in the Cambridge Dictionary says: the activity of obtaining knowledge. At first I thought that the real learning that we get is the one that we obtain outside the school but by reading this meaning it's related to school also because we also obtain knowledge.
    So, in my conclusion, the real learning can occur from the outside, such as family, society, and friends and from the educational side too.

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  22. Regarding today´s class in which we debate the statement " Ill health begins in the mind", I woudl say I agree with it. What lead me to believe this, is the clear example that when I feel nervous I start feeling sich or when I´m sad y start having a headache. I t is proved scientificly that the brain and feelings are connected, just like someone explained today in class, so it is not just magic. I dear say the way we feel influences us phisically and Dr. David Sobel (the author of Mind-Body Health Newsletter) said that most people who visit their physician for common maladies like nausea, headache and stomachache are diagnosed with physical, organic cause, that means that 84% are suffering from illness that is originated in thoughts.
    Moving to the second statement we discussed, which was "Real learnning does not only occur in school" I dear say I agree. I strongly believe we learn better from our own experiences, the outside world, the real one. At school we learn to memorize things maybe we are not interested in and later on e¿we forget it. However, maybe you like a subject but as we have so much homework and things to study, it becomes our worst enemy. To sum up, in shcool you learn the basic informations you need but they don not teach you values which are of paramount importance in our modern society, also usually I would never remember things we saw in the subject but when it comes to study I do and in that moment I learn, outside my house.

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  23. In the last debate class although I didn't contribute to the discussion, I had prepared a brief text telling the story of Louise Hay, who is a famous writer for the self-help genre. With only 5 years old, she was raped by a neighbor and had a horrible family who would only tell her she was worthless. She legally changed her name and moved to New York. There she found a Religious Science church, which years later she became a practitioner. Few years later she was diagnosed with an allegedly incurable uterus cancer, which had to be operated within six months. It was at that moment that she understood that all the hate and anger she had been accumulating in her body towards his neighbor, mother and abusive stepfather. Instead of going into surgery, she decided she could fix it. So she started therapy, changed her diet, learned to forgive, shifted her mind and think why was she so upset.
    Few months later she came back to the same doctor, and found out after a study that she was cancer free. That's how she wrote her book "You can heal your life" which sold more than 50 million copies.
    I heard about this story two years ago thanks to my godmother when I wasn't in a good place emotionally and it inspired me a lot.
    Concerning "real learning doesn't occur in a classroom", I still stand by my point [the quote I read]. Taking English class as an example, I know we learn a lot of data and it will be really helpful in the future. But if we were to spend 4 months abroad in an English speaking country as mundanes I am certain we would learn a lot more things that we do in a whole year here.

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  24. In Wednesday´s class (14/06) a few of students, including me, went to the front to share our debate. So, I would like to share now my opinion relative to those specifics topics that really were a controversial.
    •Should prostitution be legalized?
    I believe that there is no harm by having sex with strangers and have a business out of it. However if you do not protect yourself, there are chances that you can be spreading diseases to a lot of people. We could also say that if be legalized prostitution we can send a bad message to younger people which could be, seeing the women only a sexual object. In conclusion, if we probated, we have to be careful.
    •Should illegal immigrants become US citizens?
    I strongly disagree with this statement. The main reason is because if you decided to go to live in US with your family or even on your own, you have to respect the law. For example, follow the right and legal procedures to have the passport and authorization. Most of the people that do not follow this structure are criminals that want to escape from their country. So it would not be convenient for the other country who receives this kind of immigrants.

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  25. Last class I did not present my topic because I did not think it was as controversial as to start a debate out of it, but we exchanged opinions on other themes. The first one was if whether prostitution should or not be legalized. Personally speaking, I would say that prostitution is a way of giving value to your own body, a way of earning money apart from getting pleasure. Hearing that nowadays prostitutes do not have rights over rape or abuse gave me another reason to be on agreement of prostitution legalization. From my perspective, people won´t start considering women a sexual object just for the legalization of sex business. If (as it was said in class) when people talk about prostitution it is commonly thought about women who do this kind of job, no matter whether it is legal or not, I am pretty sure that the ones who would consider women sexual objects already do (maybe my point was not clear: there is no need of it being legal for people to consider them sexual objects).
    We also heard pros and cons of the idea of immigrants becoming US citizens. I have been once to the United States and I was taken aback by the amount of foreign people who live and work there. I know it is common not to receive the authorization to be a citizen, which is the reason why some people prefer entering illegally to the country. USA hosts a lot of people who are not citizens, for example, my mother´s cousin got a great job in an American company, but that wasn´t enough reason to get the papers, he will just be legally accepted as long as he works there. So I am in disagreement with the original statement, I believe the country has the right to decide whether immigrants are or not welcome in their lands.
    The last topic that we heard the advantages and disadvantages of was if whether sexual orientation is or not determined at birth. I am not really into this topic, so I will do some research on it before talking nonsense.

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  27. Also someone talked about the points in favour and drawbacks of having a cellphone at an early age. I totally agree with the idea of young kids not having the need of owning a phone, not only because it is very risky for them and taking care of it is a huge responsibility, but also because children who have cellphones lack a lot of creativity, and often choose staying at home to play with it instead of enjoying outdoor activities.
    Anyway, when this topic is focused on teenagers I dare say they are utterly useful: they work as a searching tool and also are a good way for keeping youngsters in touch with each other and their elders.

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  28. Is sexual orientation determined at birth?

    In my view, people have the opportunity to choose their sexual orientation at the time they are prepared to.

    Many people tell that they thought they were 'born gay.' Over 50% of homosexuals stated that they knew they were “different” since the earliest years of knowing what “normal” really was. Opponents argue that homosexuality is a reversible and unfortunate lifestyle choice resulting from poor child-parent relationships, sexual abuse, brainwashing by pro-gay influences, or other developmental causes

    The reality is that no scientific evidence has established a genetic cause for homosexuality or found a 'gay gene.' There is no DNA or medical test to determine if a person is homosexual. Sexual orientation is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration. 'Gay' is a self-chosen identity.

    Should animal testing be banned?
    I dare say I am in complete disagreement with this topic due to the experiments that are very often to fail; so many animals are killed for this (for no reason). I don’t think it is necessary to test in animals because there are other options for a solution. There are artificial skins which don’t produce a different result from animals.

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  29. Should kids have cellphones?
    It is said to be a must have accessory. That is why I believe that young people can have phones. One reason I chose this is because it has safety benefits, in which might help parents as they are connected with their children and also by tracking them with the GPS system. In addition, in the school they are able to surf the internet as to help them find answers or information.

    Should the Government Allow Immigrants Who Are Here Illegally to Become US Citizens?
    Nowadays, there are a lot of immigrants in the US illegally. In my view, by allowing the immigrant to become citizens, the country will be able to make more productions for more companies/industries; considering immigrants go there to take any job. The nation will generate major profit with them, reducing progressive taxes.

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  30. Last class (Wednesday 28th) we had the opportunity to discuss a couple of topics that were pretty interesting. The first one was "CARRYING GUNS SHOULD BE LEGALIZED". It is generally accepted that it should because it could be a great way of self-defense and security. However, imagine if your whole neighborhood have the permission and ability to use a gun, would´t you get scared?. In my opinion I would. Just the idea of every single one having a gun make me feel that the world will have a war in any moment. In short, I totally disagree with this statement because I believe it will cause more problems than the ones we already have. Now, moving to the next one: "ZOOS SHOULD BE BANNED". Most people totally agree with this and is because they don´t want to see the animals suffer and prefer them to be in their natural habitat where they could be free. Nonetheless, there are places where animals are surrounded by rocks, plants and vegetation so they feel more closer to their real habitat but I believe that it would´t be the same. I only accepted the departments where they kept animals who are in danger of extinction and so that the specialists can take care of them up to they know is the right time to let them free. You can see this type of places in documentaries in National Geographic´s channel. Another great way to replaced zoos are the safaris expedition. The best reason is that the human are the ones who are in cages and not the animals. Finally, the last statement was "NOWADAYS, PARENTS ARE TOO PERMISSIVE WITH THEIR CHILDREN". At first, it was quite difficult to make a choice as it depends on each family. For example, my parents are permissive but not to that point where I can do whatever I want. One case is the alcohol. Now, teenagers of my age have already drink it, especially at weekends. So, I know I have to control myself and don´t pass the line. Nevertheless, my parents let me to my own choices and that is essential even at this stage of my life. To sum up, families are different compare to others and some of them are more strict than others. Thank you! Have a nice weekend:)

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