The Yale Hindi Debate

THE YALE HINDI DEBATE

Born as a student’s idea in a Yale classroom, the Yale Hindi Debate has grown exponentially, from an ambitious venture to an intellectual, cultural, and social institution. 
The debate was established as a Yale-only event in 2008, and now sees participation from faculty and students from USA’s preeminent schools, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Cornell, UCLA, Wesleyan, Rutgers, the University of Texas at Austin, and Wellesley College.

Why this debate is easier than it sounds:

Are you scared of public speaking? Not an issue...

  • Each speaker presents his or her own speech, which he or she has prepared in advance. 
  • The speaker is allowed to consult notes.
  • The speaker speaks uninterrupted, for 3 minutes. 
  • Finally, after the speaker finishes his or her speech, an audience-member asks the speaker one question based on the speaker’s speech, and no cross questioning is permitted – giving the speaker the last word (a much sought after rarity in real life).

Debating doesn’t get any friendlier than this! 

Is your Hindi rusty? Not an issue... 

  • For the purposes of judging, there will be four distinct categories of speakers, and each speaker will compete only within his/her category; we want people with varying levels of proficiency to participate.
  • Casual, conversational Hindi is allowed--and encouraged! The occasional Hinglish is okay too. 

This isn’t a test of how good your Hindi is!

So, participate!

 

Davenport College at Yale - Source: Akhil Sud, SM '16