We had a heated debate on whether it’s good for people to grow up in adverse circumstances. Both the affirmative team and the negative team stated their opinions eloquently and learned a lot from this debate.

Before the debate, the class was divided into two groups: the con-side and pro-side. Therefore, we separately worked as groups to discuss how to prepare the materials and build our debate strategy. Since everyone valued this opportunity, we began to prepare for it a week in advance.

It was such an honor for me to be the host of this debate, so I began with a brief introduction of the debate topic and the debaters. Then, the first pro-side debater started the debate by stating that bad conditions could train our wills by giving examples of heroes in Chinese history who had a bad time in life.

To refute, the con-side argued that some people are not strong enough to overcome adversity and too much pressure would make them feel depressed, so they would lose the energy to keep on working or studying. Strong evidence and scientific statistics were also used to add to the persuasiveness and reinforce each side’s argument.

When it was my turn, I stood up and introduced myself, feeling my heart pounding fast. I spoke as loudly and clearly as I could in order to make sure others would understand me and even agree with me.

In the same way, my teammates did perfectly too. At that time, we needed to not only express our points, but also note down the other team’s statements and analyze how to refute them.

The free debate part was the most important and the most brilliant part. I admired Qing Sijie, Bai Jieyu and Su Ziqing so much because they used logical thinking and fluent language, though some of them were not even in my team.

After every debater finished his or her statement, the teacher gave a concise summary, in order to help us understand the purpose of this debate. She also pointed out some grammar and logical mistakes. What’s more, the most educational part was that she told us many teenagers like us are suffering from poverty and poor study conditions.

However, they keep on studying hard and are always grateful for their educational opportunities.

Here in Shenzhen, most of us have very favorable educational conditions, but some of us don’t value them at all. Thus, I have learned that no matter what circumstances we face, we have to study hard to make it better and always have a heart full of gratitude.

This unforgettable event not only gave me a wonderful chance to practice my spoken English, but also made me think about a real life problem. This really broadened all of our horizons and expanded our knowledge with things that cannot be learned by taking classes at school.

What’s more, the debate skills demanded by colleges and companies have already become more and more significant.

I really hope we can organize more meaningful activities like this.