Federation of British International Schools in South East Asia and East Asia

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Model United Nations (MUN)

FOBISSEA MUN CONFERENCE, 2 – 4 December 2010

Hosted by British International School Vietnam

The First FOBISSEA Model United Nations Conference was recently held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Some students from the ABC International School spoke about their experiences at the conference:

The 1st FOBISSEA Model United Nations conference was a magnificent event. The effort and logistics involved in organising a truly international conference for various different schools in South East Asia must have been extremely challenging. Despite all the problems in arranging such an event, the 1st FOBISSEA MUN conference was a success.

Of course, the heart and soul of the conference are the delegates. This year, we had excellent delegates, who were passionate about the topics of the debate and very creative when it came to writing speeches. It was a joy to exchange ideas and collaborate with these people. The debates were heated, with good points being raised for and against the resolutions being discussed. In the Economic and Social Council, 1 out of 3 resolutions were passed.

Many people think that a MUN conference is extremely serious, and will be no fun. This is not the case. The debate procedure is very flexible, the language used can be quite casual (to a certain extent) and many of the delegates were interesting people to talk to during the breaks in the conference.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and I encourage everyone to experience a MUN conference for themselves. - Contributed by Jonathan, Year 11

Having attended two MUN conferences, I couldn't agree more with other students' view that this is such a fantastic experience.

MUN is both very memorable and a great opportunity to turn yourself into a more diplomatic person. Everyone is expected to have a sound background knowledge in global issues on which they will be debating and represent well the country we have chosen. We learn to present the arguments in a diplomatic, persuasive and occasionally forceful way.Of course not everyone is confident when they first stand in front of an audience, but you soon realise that everyone is the same as you, with the rare few who do have an innate oratorical skill

I hope to see more younger students participating in MUN next year. - Contributed by Je Young, Year 12

We were all very anxious and nervous at first, but then as time went on, we became more and more confident about the conference. We started off being very quiet, with no questions asked or made, but ended the conference with excellent debates, which were not as hard as we thought. Throughout the three days of conference, we met lots of students from different schools in different countries. We developed friendships amongst them, as well as the skills to make speeches in public and to speak loudly and clearly with confidence.

Overall this was an outstanding new experience for us and we strongly encourage students to take part. Once you have experienced the adrenaline rush of such an event, you will be addicted. - Contributed by Wen Yi and Ji In, Year 12