Peninsula debater competes internationally

For two weeks this month, senior Daniel Tartakovsky, two students from Harvard Westlake and one student from the Barstow School in Kansas City attended the World Schools Debating Championships. The annual tournament held in Antalya, Turkey hosted fifty countries with teams of three to five people.

“It was cool how other countries have kids who know English better than we do despite it being their third or fourth language,” Tartakovsky said.

Tartakovsky also noted the contrast between American debate and international debate.

“International debate is a lot more about style than content,” Tartakovsky said. “English is the third or fourth language for many of the judges, so humor and idioms don’t translate well.”

Though they won just three of their eight debates, the trip was worthwhile for Tartakovsky.

“The experience was awesome, especially because we even had tours where we visited Roman ruins,” Tartakovsky said.