Date: Sunday, May 22, 2016

Participants (from 12 countries):

Host: Rick

Co-Host: Johny

Teams

Panel PRO (Team A): Hanieh, George, Heytham, Leandro
Panel CON (Team B): Seif, Djamila, Grace, Jami
Audience (Team C): Noorola, Elham, Soso, Oleg, Behnam, Johny
Just Listening: John.

Team A summary:

Hanieh:
Whether we like it or not, the way we dress causes an impression on others. People oftentimes judge others based upon their clothes. In a work environment, wearing proper clothing is the key to succeed. It is not always about the style of clothes we wear but also the state in which we keep those clothes and the way we keep our clothes is paramount (clean and tidy, for instance).

George:
To impress means to cause admiration. “I don’t care the way I dress, the most important thing is me.” If we didn’t agree with this topic we would not dress up on wedding days or when we have interviews. The way people talk, walk or dress tells about their personality. We all want to be admired.

Haitham:
People should dress well, either formally or informally and it should be tidy in order to impress people or for not being repulsive to them, for example, official figures because they are often in front of many people and they should not dress in a ridiculous or repulsive way.
Prospective doctors should wear dress suits too in order to avoid negative repercussions on the patient’s psychology. Dressing well is important to gain patient’s or client’s trust.

Leandro:
There is no problem in trying to dress well. For instance, many men like women who dress in a way that show their femininity.
And women like men who dress in a way that underline their manhood (tidy, clean, short haircut, etc.); however, what matter the most is our personality because we make relationships with people, not with clothes. It is necessary to develop our personality but of course we should not let ourselves go with our appearance.

Team B summary:

Djamila:
Impressions have weight but in life we need to take steps and dressing to impress people is the last step. Before dressing, we should work on our personality and confidence. For instance, a girl can wear a nice dress and high heels and look sexy but if she doesn’t have a good attitude, she won’t impress anyone. It’s important to have self-confidence when we approach people and clothes are superficial. We should be clean though in our appearance but is not necessary to dress up to impress them.

Grace:
We should wear what it’s comfortable for us. There are situations and places where there are certain expectations in terms of clothing, such as funerals, weddings our children’s school, etc. and follow society’s costumes. “I wear clothes I am comfortable with; clothes that match with my skin color and I combine colors that match with each other but I do not dress just to impress someone else.”

Jami:
It depends on the situations. There are situations where it’s preferable to dress formally and there are others that dressing informally is okay. If a person judges us for the way we dress then that person is not worthy of being our friend. You are you, not the clothes you wear.

Team C summary:

Behnam:
Both teams did a good job but team A did a little bit better. Impressing people is not a bad thing, impressing is making people admire and respect us. We should make others respect us. We should take care of our appearance and take care of our inside as well. First, we should work on our personality, then on our clothes. If we focus only on our appearance, it won’t work. In some cases our appearance is important such as when we hold an important position in a job, because we are role model and people focus their attention on us but we got there because we were an important and effective person.

Soso:
It’s good to impress people in a professional and in an informal environment but let’s not make it a priority. There are situations where some women dress in certain way just to feel good about themselves or for some other women but the reality of certain settings is that they do it just to impress men.

Elham:
We need to dress to impress people. There is a difference (in certain situations) if we wear black or white, if we wear loose or tight, if it is wrinkled or tidy, if it is clean or dirty. All these factors give signs of the kind of person we are. There was one situation - (in Soso’s life) - where after an interview, from many people; one woman was selected for wearing a white dress because the interviewers considered that was a sign of being a happy and more energetic person and this proves the premise.
Some people even believe that colors on clothing have an impact on people’s way of thinking and can even cure diseases.

Oleg:
There isn’t much to say after everything that has been said. Business people should wear tidy clothes; it is a conventional wisdom. However, it’s common to find people who want to stand out from the crowd. We should dress according to our professions, it would be weird for a construction worker to wear a suit and weird that a boss or clerk of an important position to wear messy and dirty clothes. We should wear according to our job position.

Johny:
Question for team B: If we want to impress someone in particular, is “dressing” the way to go?

Grace’s answer: We can impress them by talking. Because nice clothes only impress if our body is fit but talking appropriately always impress.

Djamila’s answer: In places where everybody is already dressed well, it’s hard to impress someone because the interesting factor gets lost in the commonness. With that said, we need to offer more than just dressing nicely. If we don’t have anything interesting to say, we won’t get far. We need to put something else on the table. Furthermore, a nice dress is just cloth if we don’t have a good attitude to go with it. Attitude is very important and people feel that.

Johny’s opinion:
There are situations in which being well dressed is important. For example, when we need to create a certain impression without talk or conversation, one's dress can help, along with attitude, eloquence and wit.
Dressing well is important in situations like when we meet our future parents-in-law, our first date and people conducting our job interviews.
Although it is not important in other situations, dressing well is the way to impress in some cases. Since good conversational skills are sometimes more helpful, we need to find a balance and make use of both our appearance and our behavior.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, there are some countries in which the majority of the people do judge other people based upon the clothes they wear. In those places, people seem not to tolerate the way certain people dress and they judge them merely for this reason.
Sometimes, therefore, just because a person doesn't dress in the same way others do, they face discrimination for not wearing the same type of clothes.

Noorola:
Dressing well is always important because people are judgmental towards the way people dress. All situations dictate the way people should dress.

Votes:

Behnam voted for team A.
Soso voted for team A.
Elham voted for team A.
Oleg voted for team A.
Johny voted for team A.

Team A won this debate. Thanks everyone for participating. Below are the links to listen to this discussion.

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