English News
PESA Hosts Shine
The 29 May was the Plain English-Speaking Award (PESA) competition’s regional finals, right here at Nossal! We were glad to host such a prestigious competition which is an initiative of VCAA. The event consisted of a number of schools, represented by two speakers each. Nossal was represented by Hayden Radford and Abhishek Kumar, both in the class of 2018. Our guests included speakers from Beaconhills Secondary College, Mazenod College and Huntingdale School.
The competition consisted of two rounds. The first a six-minute-long prepared speech and the second an unprepared, three-minute impromptu topic. Nossal’s first speaker, Hayden, spoke passionately and powerfully about the frightening impacts of forgetting language. He urged us to consider the shocking injustice of the incarceration our native people face. He regaled us with personal anecdotes, referred to the outstanding impact his great-great grandmother had on the revival of an entire language in Tasmania, and showed us the plentiful positive impacts her labour had. Hayden’s speech taught us all something very valuable, and his was definitely one of the best on the day.
Nossal’s second representative Abhishek Kumar on the other hand, delivered a stirring speech on some of the faults of our education system. He challenged the monotone grind VCE often boils down to and advocated for a stronger curriculum based on the foundations of personal creativity and individualism. Abhishek stressed the importance of allowing students to discover their passions and find their place in the strange, complicated world instead of memorizing impractical facts. He also entertained us with a number of person experiences, ranging from his first thought in the morning to his stressful journey in the VCE.
PESA’s second round, the impromptu speech revolving on the prompt ‘Shining Brightly’, proved to be a trial by fire that left many of our guests feeling the burn. As the speaking order was kept consistent from the first round, Hayden was invited to make the opening speech. His interpretation went against the grain, as he talked about the sometimes god-like perception of our Australian sporting heroes. With this adoration, comes immense pressure and Hayden showed us how the ridiculous expectations we place on our top sportsmen comes back to hurt them both mentally and physically. He implored us to consider the harm athletes inflict on themselves in order to ‘shine brightly’ and meet our expectations and asked us to think twice before criticising our role-models.
Abhishek’s impromptu was unique in its own right. His speech warned us about the dire consequences our desire to ‘shine bright’, light up our world and make everyday tasks as easy as possible has had on the planet’s natural resources. Abhishek implored us to conserve and adapt to renewable, clean energy sources to ensure a brighter tomorrow. Apart from this, Abhishek critiqued our financial and technological blunders that arose from having the insatiable urge to consume cheap power and detailed how that allowed billion-dollar entrepreneurs like Elon Musk to sell us a solution we were already within grasp of.
All in all, Abhishek and Hayden delivered powerful and inspiring monologues and Hayden was able to secure a well deserved second place overall in the competition.
Mridul GARG
Year 10
