PESA Competition

On 30 May, Nossal saw eight talented advocates from schools throughout Melbourne coming to compete against each other in the Plain English Speaking Award regional semi-final. The Nossal Debating students in Years 9 and 10 were lucky enough to form the live audience.

For the first round, topics were prepared based on what competitors were passionate about. The significance it held for each speaker was evident, demonstrated in the tones of their voice, which they utilised to emphasise certain words, expressing emotions that quickly grasped the attention of the adjudicator and audience. Topics included multiculturalism, embracing the present, the effects of war and the rapid spread of technology. Yet, no matter the topic, we stayed engaged because we could clearly see how much the topic meant to them, and they were all researched in great depth and with purpose.

Morning tea was a favourite among the audience, and because we didn’t do much except for sit, the refreshments were just another bonus of the exciting event. However, for the competitors, it was a revitalizing break for them before the nerve-wrecking, impromptu round.

 The impromptu round tested the speaker’s creative abilities by asking them to craft a speech on a topic that was given three minutes before they had to deliver it. All speakers were given the same topic ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’.  As speakers came in one after another to deliver a speech they had only just composed, we were fascinated by just how many interpretations and perspectives could be taken on the topic. Varun from Nossal was even able to bring humour into the tense atmosphere of the room, making everyone, adjudicators included, laugh wholeheartedly. It was inspiring to witness the bravery of all the speakers, who all gave their best effort, and even when their words faltered, the ideas they talked about kept all of us interested in hearing the next part of it.

Amongst the audience, discussions were being made over the big, final question: who will take first place? It was hard to tell, yet when the winners were announced, we congratulated them with loud applause. Aside from who was the best or who won, the PESA competition made us feel excited about future public speaking opportunities and motivated us to practice in hopes of becoming as good as the speakers who spoke with courage and passion!

Congratulations to Varun Shriram and Anhad Arora for representing Nossal with eloquence, passion and poise. 

Anhad will compete in the semi-final on Friday 20 June at Treasury House - wish him luck!

By Lucia Fang and Hashini Bagathsingh