Duke Hindi Student Makes School Proud at Yale Hindi Debate

Every year, Yale organizes a debate by selecting a meaningful topic that brings together students from across the country. This event not only fosters national participation but also helps students connect and gain a deeper understanding of the program. It’s a wonderful opportunity to interact with Hindi learners both nationally and internationally. Students always look forward to this unique debate. 

The purpose is not merely to showcase their Hindi-speaking abilities—though that is one small aspect—but the true achievement lies in connecting with the Hindi-speaking community, exploring important topics, and developing the valuable skill of public speaking in Hindi. 

This year, Duke’s Hindi student Shreya Joshi participated in the debate and won second place. Her thoughts are shared below. 

Shreya Joshi (Duke Class of ‘27)  

Walking into the auditorium at Yale, I felt nervous. I had never debated in Hindi before and didn’t know what to expect. There was a smattering of international students, heritage speakers, and professors in the audience as well as alumni and students. I remember thinking, “I wish I had practiced my speech one more time.” Unfortunately, I was out of time and had spent the last half an hour drinking chai instead of running through my presentation.  

The event started with introductions, welcome speeches, and guidelines. After the non-native, non-heritage speakers went, it was my turn. Now that I knew this was a national debate, as in people had to compete to get there, and how prestigious the judges were, I was more nervous than ever. As I delivered my speech, trying to remember to speak slowly, my nerves abated somewhat. After three minutes, I fielded questions from the audience, and sat back down. I was not expecting to win best interjector across categories, or to place second in my category. My advice for students who want to participate is to write a speech they feel good about, and practice, practice, practice. As you get more comfortable speaking, you can pay attention to your inflection, spacing, and delivery. It’s not a test of your Hindi, but of how you speak Hindi, and the only way to get better is to practice like you mean the words you wrote.  

interjector=person who asks questions after the debater is done speaking. Each audience member has the opportunity to ask questions but only once throughout the entirety of the debate, and then the judges choose who asked the best question of the day.  

This event was supported by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Yale University