Biog#5: Debate About Tourism(Misaki Yoshida)

Hi, this is Misaki Yoshida. Last Friday, we debated about tourism. Our topic was ”tourism helps people in tourist community.” It was an interesting topic for me, because my mother and grandmother run a small travel agency of their own, and I often go to travel with them. I’m going to reflect on this debate with 3 points.

1.       First, we separated into 2 groups which are agree team and disagree team. I was in disagree team with Hiroshi. We had 4 strong points about our opinion, so I am going to introduce. First points that Hiroshi said was environment problem. Hiroshi gave 2 examples with a picture, Antarctica and Mt. Fuji. In Antarctica, precious environment and materials of study are hurt by tourists. Mt. Fuji is especially in trouble with garbage pollution, so it had some troubles until becoming a world heritage. Second points that I said was privacy problem. I gave an example about Biei city in Hokkaido with pictures. Biei is famous for a sevenstar tree which is the origin of name of sevenstar cigarette, so many tourists come here. Though this tree is planted in private field, many bad tourists trespass and give damage to crops. We pointed out that tourism has possibility to invade private in tourist community. Third point which Hiroshi said was traffic problem. When transport facilities are made, these are certainly made by hacked into environment. These destroys environment, but transport facilities are necessary for tourism. Hiroshi also mentioned to traffic jam, and gave an example of Kamakura. This problem always annoys people in tourist community. Last point that I said was the destruction of nature. Tourism sometimes causes the destruction of nature. I gave 2 examples, Okinawa and Hawaii. We pointed out that tourists should know that they can destroy environment easier, but its regeneration is very difficult and necessary to much time. (254 words)

2.    I’m going to introduce the best point made by the agree team. They said that tourism creates employment. For example, waitress in restaurants, staff in hotels and souvenir shops. Also, they introduced that women in tourist community in developing country can get jobs and their positions are improving. Moreover, they said that tourism makes economy active. When I thought opinions of agreement. I also thought of same things, so I completely agree, and I couldn’t retort at all. We talked about tourist community in developed country, but they talked about developing community, so we debated at different position. However, when I thought about tourist community in developing country, I couldn't help agreeing.(113 words)

3.    It was my first experience to debate in English. We didn’t know which team I belonged to until the day, so I searched many things, such as the facts, data and examples. Thanks to that, I could share my opinions with Hiroshi smoothly before debating. I learned that Preparations in advance is really important and make my opinions stronger. Also, I think that time management is important. I couldn’t it well, because I spent much time in response, so I couldn’t say my opinions to the end. In contrast, agree team was good at time management. They always could response and say new points in time. I learned that pictures and concrete examples were very effective and made our points stronger. These are persuasive. I also learned that big voice and body languages were effective for giving good impression. I really enjoyed this debate, and it was a great experience for me.(153 words)