Public Speaking at Yonsei: A look into South Korea’s premier debate society

As the one and only English varsity debating society of Yonsei University, the Yonsei Underwood Union (YUU) continues to expand its presence since its founding in 2006. The 2023 Spring semester was no exception as the club successfully supported and nurtured scores of ambitious, passionate Yonsei students interested in the daunting world of public speaking. With this bustling, vibrant debater community starting and growing at the heart of our very own Underwood International College (UIC), The UIC Scribe exclusively uncovers the club’s recent accomplishments from this past semester.

The Yonsei Underwood Union is a member of the Korea Intervarsity Debate Association (KIDA), a representative body of 14 South Korean undergraduate debate societies that engage in English-language parliamentary debate. For years, Yonsei Underwood Union has welcomed debaters of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience. So long as applicants bear with them a passion for public speaking and academic discourse, the club has hand-picked talented individuals that each contributed to Yonsei Underwood Union’s accomplishments and history. After responding to a Google Form questionnaire for the first round of applications and completing a second round of mock-debate style interviews, club members attend weekly evening practices, compete at debate tournaments, and form lasting friendships and memories. 

New club members, also called “rookies” by the debater community, are strongly encouraged to compete in the semesterly KIDA Rookie Tournament for beginner debaters who are about to start their debating career. Hosted by Seoul National University and the Korea Intervarsity Debate Association this semester, Yonsei’s rookies swept both team and individual speaker awards of the competition. Equipped with weeks of practice from general sessions and unmatched moral support from upperclassmen debaters, three Yonsei Underwood Union teams advanced to both the pre-quarter-finals and quarter-finals. In addition, Yonsei University rookies took home 5 of the 10 available Best Speaker Awards for rookie debaters, along with two top EFL Speaker Awards given to debaters who speak English as a second language. 

With the semester off to a strong start, debaters rigorously prepared for the KIDA National Championship (KNC) following the completion of the KIDA Rookie Tournament. One of the major events of the semester, KNC is a national tournament organized by member institutions of the Korea Intervarsity Debate Association. Open to both rookie debaters and the more experienced “open” debaters, KNC aims to promote public speaking in Korea and provide competitive debating opportunities for intervarsity-level debaters. After months of preparing for the challenging competition, the members’ hard work paid off; all six Yonsei Underwood Union teams that competed in the 2023 Spring KIDA National Championship advanced to the elimination rounds. Teams proceeded to varying levels, from Rookie Semi-finals to Open Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, and one Yonsei team even made it to the Grand-finals. In addition, Yonsei Underwood Union members claimed six Best Speaker Awards, meaning that they are recognized as one of the top English debaters in all of South Korea. As much as the 2023 Spring semester boasted the consistently impressive feats of the Yonsei Underwood Union members, the club’s activities expanded much farther than golden trophies won at debate competitions. 

What made this semester for the Yonsei Underwood Union truly unique was its planning and hosting of the interactive lecture, “What Debate Teaches Us,” featuring Bo Seo, a Korean-Australian debater, journalist, author, and two time world debating champion. On May 18, 2023, Seo came in to provide valuable insight on his life, career, and public speaking tips for debaters hailing from various member societies of the Korea Intervarsity Debate Association. “This was one of the most exciting events YUU has been able to host in its history, so it was extremely valuable, both in meeting a debating icon but also in strengthening the Korean debating circuit, who were able to learn from one of the best debaters in the world,” stated Milan Pfeiffer, President of the Yonsei Underwood Union for the 2023 Spring semester. As the Korean debate circuit is quite young in comparison to its peers abroad, the level of experience that can be observed in debaters, such as Bo Seo, can be very difficult to find domestically. 

Much of what the Yonsei Underwood Union has done in the last year was an effort to revert back to an offline learning environment that was well-established before the COVID pandemic. Next semester, the club’s main goal will be geared towards further improving the quality of sessions and nurturing more debaters to unleash their full potential; in reality, most applicants and new members do not have extensive experience and utilize weekly sessions to learn and improve.  

At the beginning of every semester, the Yonsei Underwood Union hosts an open house event where prospective applicants can learn first-hand how a typical debate round unfolds. The club holds 2 regular sessions per week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which usually include one lecture and three debate rounds. Because sessions are heavily geared towards preparation for the two largest Korean tournaments, most lectures held at the beginning of the semester are introductory lectures that teach the basics of debating. As the semester proceeds, lectures become more focused on specific and popular debate themes or techniques that help refine debaters’ speeches. But above all else, former President Pfeiffer describes the Yonsei Underwood Union as a “very tightly knit community of people” before it is a club; throughout the semester, members are encouraged to come to social gatherings held after weekly sessions, grab meals in between classes, and become each other’s support and cheer systems. If public speaking and being able to deliver one’s thoughts with a supportive and fun group of people is something that students think is valuable to them, then this club highly recommends that they apply as it is guaranteed that they will not regret it.