„On the 5th of April, the Debating Society Magdeburg launches their first English speaking novice tournament. For the organisers of the tournament, Felicia Höer and Stefan Torges, this is a large step to establish and facilitate English debating in Germany. “Here in Germany, beginners in English debating have a hard time to get a foot in the door. Most tournaments are far away and quite expensive”, Stefan says. Hence, they decided to make a tournament on their own: “We have a lot of English speaking novices in our society and so we thought we could do them a favour and promote English debating at the same time.”
As a novice tournament, the one in Magdeburg is the first of its kind. Felicia and Stefan, who are themselves experienced debaters and attended numerous international competitions, know how it feels to speak in English for the first time: “Many Germans, especially the ones who just started, are afraid to speak in an unfamiliar language. With our tournament, we want to take away their fear and lower the entry-barrier.”“ (www.achteminute.de)