World's best debater The Straits Times Jan 5, 2010 By Rachael Chang IT HAS been a good year for 24-year-old Li Shengwu. Five months ago he graduated as the top economics student in Oxford University. And as the decade turned the corner, he was crowned the best debater at the just-ended World Universities Debating Championships in Turkey - regarded as the world's most prestigious debating tournament. Mr Li, now a masters student in economics at Oxford, is the third Singaporean to be awarded the honour, cementing Singapore's status as a debate powerhouse. Since 1981, when the competition began, all Asian winners have been Singaporean. The Best Speaker prize is given to the debater with the highest score from all the rounds of debate, up to and including the finals. "Without a doubt, Shengwu is the finest Oxford debater of his generation," said one judge, Mr Daniel Warents. "This is aa fact now recognised by the whole world." Mr Li who teamed up with Briton Jonathan Leader Maynard to come in second overall in this year's competition, is the son of Fraser & Neave chairman Lee Hsien Yang and corporate lawyer Lee Suet Fern, and the grandson of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Country-wise, Singapore is ranked fourth in terms of number of winners, behind Australia, Canada and England. This is very good for a country of five million, the competition's unofficial historian, Mr Colm Flynn, noted. Bringing together 800 debaters from top universiities, the "Worlds" ended on Sunday after six days of verbal combat between 400 two-man teams. The first Singaporean Best Speaker winner was Ms Chitra Jenardhanan in 1995. Representing Nanyang Technological University, she was also the first woman and the first Asian to take the trophy. In 2003, Dr Tan Wu Meng, representing Cambridge Univeristy, won it. He is now an oncologist at the National Cancer Centre. Mr Li and his university colleaque, Briton Jonathan Leader Maynard, were second overall in the competition, losing in the final to a Sydney University team. They were the hot favourites, having taken top honours at other championships, such as the European University Championships in August last year. The high expectations helped rather than hampered, said Mr Li, who is the son of Fraser & Neave chairman Lee Hsien Yang and corporate lawyer Lee Suet Fern, and the grandson of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. One judge told him he won Best Speaker because, in addition to cerebral arguments, he marshalled rhetorical style. He knew how to play the crowd, and how to use the cadences of argument to his advantage, said the adjudicator. What gave him the confidence to do so, Mr Li said yesterday, was an audience already expecting excellence: "It gave me leeway to be more stylish, to do things you need the audience to trust you to do." He got into debate in secondary school and represented Singapore at the 2003 world championships when at Raffles Junior College. Mrs Geetha Creffield, head of Arts at Anglo-Chinese Junior College and Mr Li's coach in 2003, said what sets him apart is his ability to make arguments seem new. It is a skill Mr Li is proud of. To him, debate is a game of strategy, like chess. But unlike chess, where a player uses rules of the game to win, he said, the rules of reason are ever amorphous. The creative debater can find an argument that takes his opponent by surprise. For Mr Li, it is his most prized weapon in verbal spar and parry: an argument the enemy did not see coming. Mr Li, now a masters student in economics at Oxford, has been named Best Speaker at the just-ended Worlds Universities Debating Championships, the most prestigious debating tournament in the world. -- PHOTO COURTESY OF LI SHENGWU
I'd like to see this fella, Mr. Li.. ..go head-to-head, shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-elbow, knees-to-knees and toe-to-toe against some of our brightest, feistiest & bravest baddy debaters in BC, debating about badminton...I'm sure our BC debaters would love to have a "fresh meat"..I'd like to see who'll blink first..
^^Huummm...^^ ..We can roll out: limsy, first. If he can't do it & Mr. Li gets all confused by what limsy is trying to convey, then we call on jasonmarc. If he can't do it, then we call narnia. If narnia can't do it, we call badMania. If he can't do it, then we call on cooler. Then if he can't do it, then we call on Mr. T. If Mr. T can't do it, then we call on Gollum. And if Gollum still can't do it, then we roll out our secret weapon: Pemuda..We'll save him for last (and for the laugh) and just in case.. But boy, can you imagine, 8 vs. 1?!?!?!..
Hold it, this guy is a fighter. He will read up all that you guys have written on badminton, especially Gollum's thesis on badminton grips and may even look up old footages of maestro Wong Peng Soon in action, just to get a feel of how a champion does it. But he might still have a problem with Pemuda's longest flagpole, submerged missiles, missing jet fighter engines and many more secret weapons in his arsenal.
St Joseph's pioneers did not disappoint Today 05:55 AM Jan 07, 2010 By Zul Othman SINGAPORE - The last few days have been "nervous times", as St Joseph's Institution (International) principal Brian Christian puts it. The school's first cohort, who sat in November for the International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations, were due to get their results. And when they were released yesterday, Mr Christian was able to breathe easier. About 93 per cent of the pioneer batch passed - well above last year's world average of 78.75 per cent. One in five of the students also scored at least 41 points out of the 45 available, and two of the 58 students were one point shy of perfection. Mr Christian was "absolutely delighted" by their performance. He said: "The IB track is tremendously demanding, but I think it also gives our students an excellent preparation for their university studies and helps them to think beyond the classroom." One of the school's top scorers, Ian Chai, admitted that preparations for the IB exam were "tough". "It was intensive but I feel we were lucky because our teachers really guided us, getting us ready for the test as early as last June," said the 18-year-old, who is awaiting National Service enlistment. Over at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), it was a 100 per cent pass rate - again. Of the 425 students - its third cohort - 13 students obtained a perfect score while 68.2 per cent scored 40 points and above, an improvement over last year's 61.9 per cent. Another 31 students obtained bilingual diplomas. ACS (I) principal Dr Ong Teck Chin said, "Our last two batches ranked among the top three performers in the world, so we're glad to achieve the same results again this year ." Perhaps no one was more surprised than ex-student Joshua Renee Jeyaraj, 18. "It was a pretty difficult exam, so I was mentally prepared to get lower points ... but I scored 45, which I must say is a testament to the hard work the teachers have put in to help us prepare for this test," he said. There are currently 2,050 IB diploma schools in the world, and 17 IB schools in Singapore, of which four are local schools: ACS International, ACS (I), SJI International and Hwa Chong International (HCI). HCI did not reply to MediaCorp's queries by presstime.
Don't worry, I meant no harm and I am not insulting him. I noticed there are quite a number of Bcers all over the globe that originates from our shores and glad that they still showing interest through our forums, which is great.
I took my Form 5 exam in 1973. I told my friend to go to the school to check out the results posted on the board. If I failed, I told my friend, don't come see me. If I pass, come see me and tell me only one subject score and that was Bahasa...And I score a P7, pray to the Almighty Lord, Amen. We had 3 tests for Bahasa...one oral where we read a page, close the book and the examiner would ask 5 questions to see how much we had comprehended. Second, comprehension for 2.5 hrs, then essay (365 words) for 2.5 hrs, Tally them all and the results are curved across MAS. If I failed Bahasa, I would had failed the entire Form 5 examination. I had tutor for Bahasa (only subject I needed desperate help). He taught us essay writing and before the exam, he told us he predicted one of 3 essay topics would come out. We focussed on them and he was right. So you see, I had a tutor helping me out to prepare an essay and I still only scored P7, oh dear! If I ain't prepared for this topic...I am cooked:crying: So, 31 yrs later in Canada, how good is my Bahasa...you guess it:crying::crying:
^^Off topic-So..^^ ..how good is your bahasa??..*akhem* So, just to see how far you still remember (or forgot), can you translate this into bahasa?(pretty simple): "I really love and enjoy BadmintonCentral. It is almost like home away from my Malaysia"
I wouldn't even try to make a fool of myself in Bahasa...if I speak Bahasa, MAS people would say 'huh'? I have given all back and more to my pretty looking guru in MAS long time ago Hey, my wife can barely speak passable Bahasa after 30 yrs in Canada, and she got a A1 in Bahasa, in fact she got 7 As...maybe she tipu her exam while at least I passed mine with a prayer Limsy, where are you, I know you sleep with the laptop on 24/7. Please translate the above to malay for me, thanks
We're just trying to.. ..keep Loh happy lah..I'm sure even if these are off topic posts (as already occurred in earlier pages), Loh wouldn't mind chit-chatting abt them rather than yanking his hair, dealing w/Mr.T's posts, right, Loh??..
You're most welcome for a chat to start off a refreshing 2010! I'm jealous of how much time our tough one has been given tuition in Bahasa. I never really study Bahasa as such, but this is what I have to say to Chris: "Saya suka hati BadmintonCentral. Macam rumah kampong dua saya." Sorry if I made a fool of myself, but I've got none of those pretty tutors that the tough one had during his teenage years.
Loh wouldn't mind... Thanks. No harm done. Bahasa in 1973 was spelt that way. Later they changed, removing "h" and also replaced "e" with "i". I scored worse than you, I got P8, barely passed (with a prayer too) and during my time, all subjects were taught in Bahasa !! and the other only subject was English. It's even tougher now, looking at my children's books. Pemuda, you can have the honour.
NEW BOOK ON S'PORE-INDIA LINKS : S'pore wooed India early The Straits Times Jan 8, 2010 A young Lee Kuan Yew saw potential of Asian giant over 50 years ago By Zakir Hussain TO MANY, Singapore's engagement with India is a recent phenomenon. But a new book shows that Singapore's desire for strong links with the Asian giant dates back more than 50 years, when a young Lee Kuan Yew was inspired by India's nationalist struggle. And Mr Lee never lost faith in the potential of India, the book shows, for he kept stressing that Asia would be 'submerged' if India did not 'emerge'. Singapore today looms large in India's public consciousness 'only because of Lee's robust proselytisation', it adds. Written by veteran Indian journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, a former editorial consultant with The Straits Times, Looking East To Look West: Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India was launched by President SR Nathan at the Shangri-La Hotel yesterday. Mr Datta-Ray, 72, had eight long conversations with Minister Mentor Lee from 2005 to 2008 for the book and relied on material from public records as well as interviews with current and former leaders and diplomats from both countries.
Well done, Loh. That's very good, I spent 2 hours trying to translate and only came up with the first sentence : "Saya minat dan seronok dengan BadmintonCentral" Lost in the second sentence.
