thank you thank you I'm Carina and I have a channel called
English in Brazil where I teach English to Brazilians. And today I'm gonna talk
about how YouTube has been empowering people through education in Brazil and
I'm also going to share a little bit of my story with you guys. So... when I was a
kid I used to think that people who could speak more than one language were
geniuses, or the smartest people in the world because it was born in a
monolingual family and one of my favorite games was pretending that I was
able to speak the language and that I was being interviewed in English so I
used to go like [pronouncing nonsense words] which was very cute, by the way.
But while growing up I noticed that I
would have to overcome some obstacles if I really wanted to learn the language
the first one was that I couldn't afford an English course. I was afraid of making
mistakes. I thought I would never travel abroad because it was too far from my reality.
And nowadays I see that this isn't just me but a lot of Brazilians as well.
I don't know if you know but now many people speak English fluently in
Brazil, so I thought I wouldn't speak either. But let me tell you a little bit
more about my story... my childhood was humble and I couldn't afford an English
course and as it is sometimes the case in Brazil the classes you have in
language school in regular schools are not enough to say that you've really
learned the language... so I decided to do anything I could to learn the language
without spending any money. So I listened to American music every day, I started
reading simple texts in English and I created a vocabulary notebook where I
used to write down every new word and expression I learned. So I fell in love
with the language in such a way that I decided to get a degree in English so
not only did I learn the language but I became an English teacher. And my passion
for languages drove me to take an MA and a PhD in Linguistics.
So, sometimes it's hard to believe that this passion for English has taken me
this far. But there's something... a very important thing that I haven't talked
about yet, which is the fact that in 2013 I decided to share on YouTube some tips
that helped me learn the language back in the day. So I remember that in one
week I got more than a thousand views and I thought "WOW, so many people are
watching me! I don't have 1,000 students!" So I felt really excited to keep sharing
tips to help Brazilians learn. So now here I am, four years later sharing my
story with you guys in New York! I was explaining what 'turn down for what' means.
Now English in Brazil is one of the
most relevant educational channels in the country with more than 500,000
subscribers and an amazing audience. And thanks to YouTube I'm able to share my
content and to reach hundreds of millions of students who don't have the
money to pay for an English course, just like me in the past, you know. Now I'm an
ambassador of YouTube EDU in Brazil and I'm really passionate about spreading my
ideas about education and also about encouraging other teachers to join me on
this task of democratizing access to knowledge on YouTube. And I'm glad to say
that I'm not alone there are many many English teachers... not many English
teachers, but many Brazilian teachers doing exactly the same. So nowadays you
can learn not only English with the help of channels like mine but also math,
geography, history, science and this for me is amazing because it means a lot in
a country where educational inequality is such a huge problem.
And I get wonderful feedback as you can see up there.
Now I think that... I feel that it can look back to the problems I used to face
and I see that things are starting to get better. My first problem was that I
couldn't afford an English course, but now you have YouTube and YouTube is free...
as long as you have an internet connection, of course. I was afraid of
making mistakes but now I see that that's ok everybody makes mistakes and
English is the global language we're all speaking English here, everybody has a
different accent so we should focus on communication. I thought I would never
travel abroad but I am here in New York I've been travelling and that's just
amazing... so yeah maybe this will happen and even if you don't travel abroad you
can learn the language without leaving your country because you have the
Internet to help you. And I thought I would never speak English fluently, but
well... now I do! So I think anybody can do it it doesn't matter where you are or
it doesn't matter what you're doing now just believe in yourself and try to make it fun.
Now I feel that I can really pay it forward by providing free classes
on YouTube and by encouraging my subscribers to follow their dreams.
So now education is available to more and more people on YouTube, and for me
this is the most incredible thing that the Internet has brought us.
Thank you very much.