I would like to start my speech with a little slide show.

*slide show with memes proceeds* you

may have already guessed the topic of this speech. No, it obviously isn’t memes and silly jokes;
but rather what gave birth to it all. The internet. To be really honest, I myself owe a lot to the
internet simply because it is the only reason I’m using English right now. I don’t plan on wasting
our time with buzzwords about how valuable and vital it is in our lives, although it certainly is. I
would much rather talk about the fun stuff that also happens to be just as useful as actually
digging for knowledge. *A picture of Tai Lopez* You see, even though it may seem that casual
usage of the internet is centered around entertainment and wasting precious time, it is much
much more than that. You just have to know the tricks.
I am not telling you that you will become the next Elon Musk *A picture of Elon Musk* with
this "sick strat", no. Although your English skills will probably get better. That’s not to say you
can’t learn German or Spanish with this, it’s just that I’m mainly focusing on English as this is
the language that I’ve learnt myself and have experience with.
Everything is quite simple, learning languages is like building muscles; your brain always needs
some stretching. To learn a language one must always be surrounded by it, the more exposure
you get the better. It’s very similar to a martial art, you have to memorize patterns and ensure
that you react automatically. You also need to be engaged in it, you can't become a boxer without
taking a couple of punches, right? With this “tool” you will have the opportunity to be constantly
surrounded by that language.
Let me introduce you to Reddit. *Reddit logo* Some of you may have already heard about it,
although I believe that the majority has not. Don't worry; I'll make it plain and understandable.
Imagine yourself a building, a really tall one with thousands of rooms in it. There's a room for
everyone and every room is different. *Image of a skyscraper*
*Another slideshow proceeds with images that visualize the following room examples said*
There's a room for people who like cute animals.
A room countries, cities, history and science.
A room for those who love cinema, sports, videogames or art.
There’s even a room where people share images of birds with arms, I’m serious.
All these rooms are for communication, discussion and some real good fun.
And you know what's the best part about it?
If there isn’t a room for something you enjoy, you can make one yourself and people will come.
Reddit is all that but with one exception, it's a website, not a building.
You might ask: "Alright, this seems fun and all but how exactly is it going to help me with my
language skills?" Well, languages are first and foremost for communication, you may have
noticed that native speakers don't really talk the way your big and bulky English books told you,
and it's quite understandable. Reddit gives you a wonderful opportunity not only to observe and
witness the way native English speakers communicate, but also get involved in the process
yourself and, if you really want to, have a debate about Donald Trump and the current
geopolitical situation. *Picture of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin together on
horseback* It’s also fun, you know, finding people with similar interests and learning more
about the world. I believe once you know the basics of the language, all you need is practice.
And what is the best way to practice using a “tool”? Dive straight into the action.
Alright, let's finally get to the fun stuff.

*Example of the front page shown*

Well then, let's start with the front page. All it does is it shows you the posts that are the most
popular, they get the most "likes" and comments and they come from default “rooms”, or
subreddits.
Most of the time they’re either cute pets doing cute things or dumb people doing dumb things.
*GIFs of the posts described*
The interesting part is that you can choose the rooms based on your personal interests and taste
that will show up on your front page by subscribing to them. At the same time you can just enter
those rooms to post and discuss. If your post is interesting enough, you yourself can end up on
the “Front page of the Internet”, people with pets, you know what to do. Well, that’s pretty much
it, everything here is quite simple.
And this is just an example of what you can do with the wonder that is the World Wide Web. I’m
not telling you that this is the only resource you can use, of course not. The internet is vast and
wide, you just need to look far enough. A simple change in the type of content you consume or
the way you spend your free time can have an enormous effect on language learning. Keeping
YouTubers or any content creators that speak Russian at a minimum helped me personally, and
that’s just one way you can make a switch. Playing video games too is very helpful as they are a
universal medium that binds players from all over the world, who communicate and cooperate in
groups and teams, except for the times where those same players insult each other or their
mothers. *stock image of an angry gamer*
Just like I told you before, anything is useful if you look at it from a right angle. Languages are
at times confusing, but you don’t have to know every trick in the book to use them, simply
listening to the way something is said or used correctly can help you understand all the little
tweaks that riddle the language. Actual experience is what matters the most, so don’t be afraid to
talk to people, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen”. Nothing is easy and it’s
perfectly fine. Patience is key. Oh, and now you can also tell your parents that you’re not
wasting time by looking at puppies on the internet, but learning a language. So go ahead, *JUST
DO IT plays for a second*catch a moment, because *plays a line from The Kid’s Guide to
the Internet (1997) “It’s all right here at your fingertips”*.