On 1/12 (Tue), PDA students participated in the final PDA Practice Lesson of this academic year. Because they were returning from the winter vacation, in this lesson they did a full practice debate to warm up before the two final debate sessions to be held on 1/27 and 2/6.

The debate topic was "Japan should increase the pension age to 70 years old." In the debate, the focus developed over who has responsibility to shoulder the burden of the increasing strain on the Japanese pension system. The government team, who argued that older generations should work for longer to generate more money for the pension system were the winners after a very close debate.

After the debate, students were given advice to help them in their next battle. First, they were reminded to use the AREA pattern in all parts of their arguments and to be more aggressive with POIs. Also, they were encouraged to rely less on reading from notes in order to make their speech deliveries more effective by improving tone, eye contact and gestures.

Thank you to all the students who attended this and the other practice lessons. Good luck in your final debates!