ME debating in BM

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum :)

It’s astonishing that I can’t really speak fluently in Bahasa Malaysia but joining the debate competition in BM proves that I can actually make a fool of myself speaking BM and that I better brush up on my BM as it is the national language.

Firstly, because I am a JMK, I was only supposed to be a work force behind the Debat Piala Naib Canselor but due to a vacancy of one debate group in my college, the debate club had to find a swing team ASAP. And that’s when they started asking random people since most of the talented students were not around. And so they asked me. Hahaha, it seems funny to look back at all that has happened now because my roommate agreed to be in it since a swing team is confirmed to lose in the first round as it is only for the purpose of making the numbers of debate teams that are competing even. My roommate has experience debating in the Bahasa Malaysia so I figured she would just do it for kicks since there was no expectation in winning. However, a third speaker was not to be found and my roommate drags me in saying that with practise, maybe I could do it. And I actually DARED to believe that I could! It’s amazing I could even think like that because these sequences of events all happened on the night before the competition.

Tak pasal-pasal I had to sleep late that night because they wanted to see if I could speak when becoming a third speaker for my debate team. And then they asked if our team could change to not being the swing team but a REAL team, the KZ 3. I became really anxious and started to chicken out. Since it was practise time that night, I demanded to be out and admitted defeat even though I haven’t even started to speak yet. I was totally freaked out! Did they really think that they could change me into being an overnight BM debater?! It made me laugh nervously but apparently they wanted to try since they were desperate. It makes me amazed that even though these debaters had to practice and write down so many notes, they still stole some time to help and teach me! Alhamdulillah, I am so grateful at their endeavour in at least wanting me to achieve something.

But I was not AT ALL confident! That morning, I woke up and called many people to replace me but no one came to my aid. I felt so helpless and gloomy that morning but because I had an obligation to fulfil, I didn’t have the heart to back out and proceeded to my first debate competition.

I am not good in debating, even in the English language. It seems that I just don’t have the knack when it comes to fighting facts using very effusive language. I do want to learn though but I’m not really inclined towards the Malay language. But it seems that I can’t really run from something I’m afraid of and the whole event proves it.

There were 10 teams and 4 matches. My team has a reserve so I debated in 3 matches while the reserve debated in only 1. That’s because he’s just as bad as me but he couldn’t finished the 7 minutes allocated for each debater whereas I spoke so s l o w that I even exceeded 7 minutes, hahaha! I sure did embarrassed myself! There was 1 match whereby I wanted to translate facilities and what came out was facilitators but I didn’t notice and just went on talking faking confidence. I didn’t even notice everyone was laughing! When they told me, I laughed so hard that my stomach hurts!

3 aspects were considered in the debate competition, style, language and content. I have the content because my 1^st speaker was the best! She helped me a lot and so I prayed that she gets the best speaker every time and she attained the best speaker for 5 consecutive matches! I pity that she had to put up with me, hehehe :p

I do not have such effusive Malay language to match with my opponents. Most people find it hard to translate Malay into English but I do the opposite! I translated English words into Malay and people end up getting confused and laughing at my attempt, sabar jela :p

Besides that, I am not at all cynical and sarcastic and I even smiled at the other team making my first speaker and my second speaker (my roommate) exasperated. Hahaha, I can’t help it! I felt ever so foolish speaking with words all jumbled up and killing for time going all uhm, ahhh, uhm, ahh :p

So we didn’t want to win and had no expectations of winning whatsoever BUT we won one match out of the four. This is because (obviously I didn’t contribute anything at all) the team that we went against were also newbie and they had insufficient points to fight against ours. Out of 10 teams, we were ranked no8 and SURPRISINGLY we got into the quarter finals! [I’m grinning because it really is unbelievable!]

Well, we lost in the quarter finals to the no 1 team! But we gave them a good fight (I don’t think I did though, what a laugh!). In the beginning, I was so intimidated to go against the no 1 team! I tried to back out persisting my reserve to fill in for me but they said I was improving and that I could do it. Well, I did badly, looking down at the papers most of the time getting all clammy and with knots in my tummy and smiling (my roommate geram je tengok!).

“Pembangkang yang comel molek itu harus dibuang keluar dewan kerana tidak pandai hendak membidas!”

Said the first speaker (who got best speaker for 4 matches) in a jokingly manner. His team got into the finals.

All in all, I had a valuable experience and in between 3 important assignments, I actually managed to push myself to the limit, sleeping late until 3am in the night and waking up early. It’s not that admirable but at least I can say I achieved a lot in my university years and that I actually won one match in a BM debate, hehe :p