Ian Lising In a comedy club one night in Singapore, a friend threw Ian Lising on stage unprepared. But to his good fortune there happened to be a producer from the Philippines, where Lising was a professional stand-up comedian, who offered him his own talk show. “It was a cheapo rip-off of David Letterman,” says Lising of his show which lasted only one season. Lising received his undergraduate degree in the Philippines at Ateneo de Manila University, where he later coached debate and founded the debate society. In 1999 the University hosted the World Debate Championships. ULV attended that year, and it just so happened the team was looking for a new coach. “I was also looking for a change of pace,” Lising says. “I never saw myself as a West Coast guy.” But now that he is married, he and his wife love exploring California, as well as the rest of the world. Through debate Lising has had the opportunity to visit close to 37 countries. “I’ve been really fortunate to see the world that I have at such an early age,” he says. Although he does get to visit a lot of countries, he says he doesn’t get to experience them as much as he would like because he is working. ULV competes in three international tournaments a year with recent locations including Canada, Malaysia and England. Every year it participates in the World Debate Championships held Dec. 27 through Jan. 4. “That’s the Olympics - the Granddaddy of it all,” Lising says. “My parents haven’t had Christmas with me since 1993,” he says, having participated in 13 World Championships as either a competitor, coach or adjudicator. In 2002, he was nominated to chair the World Debate Council. Because ULV competes outside of the country, the team’s format is based on a world championship format based on the British Parliamentary format. “People are shocked they don’t debate like typical Americans,” Lising says of ULV’s team. “We employ a lot of methods we use around the world.” The opportunity to debate abroad is one of the things Lising enjoys most about the debate program at ULV. He sees debate as the window of opportunity for students to see they are not that different from others across the globe. “I hope that debaters who meet internationally can bridge that gap,” Lising says. “Lots of debaters end up being world leaders.” “I hope that maybe we can see that understanding,” Lising says, describing debates between teams from Pakistan and India debating about the cashmere and teams representing an Islamic view debating about Palestine. “They shake hands after,” he says. “They’re not coming up with solutions, but moving toward that perspective.” Teaching debate, Lising says, is “a method for me to help people find a way to express their ideas and help them become agents of change, hopefully.” Lising says a common misconception about debaters is that they are disagreeable people who will argue about anything at any moment. But he says, “Everybody is a debater because everyone has an opinion. Debate provides a venue for that and helps hone that skill.” As a debater in high school and college, Lising had plans to attend law school. But he says he found himself analyzing his opponents’ approaches and the way they debated. “I realized I was more attracted to the form rather than the function,” he says. “I enjoyed the idea of coaching and teaching rather than being in a courtroom myself.” Lising believes subconsciously he always wanted to be a teacher. As a child “Star Wars” was quite influential on him. While every young boy wanted to be Hans Solo or Luke Skywalker, Lising wanted to be Obe Wan Kenobe, the wise teacher. “I wanted to be the old guy,” he jokes. RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:lisinga@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_1
Ian Lising Click on the picture to send an e-mail