It all started with a promise. Doris Brougham was only 11 years old when she made up her mind to help people in Asia. It was at a Christian rally for young people, where a pastor asked how many of them would be willing to go to Asia to help people there. Brougham raised her hand and made a promise to God.
“After World War II, a lot of Americans were thinking, we need to go out there and share what we have with the rest of the world. For those of us who are church-going people, they often challenged us to go to Africa or Asia or India,” she said.
Later on, she had a chance to go to Eastman School of Music, a prestigious music school, but gave it up to go to China instead, because “if you promised, you have to do it.”
Brougham grew up to become a teacher, CEO, editor-in-chief, trumpet player, leader in the Christian community, permanent resident of Taiwan, and founder of Overseas Radio and Television, which produces radio and television programs all over the world. Now 82, Brougham has taught English to hundreds of thousands of people in Taiwan, and her English-teaching magazine, Studio Classroom, is read by 600,000 people every month.
“I was on a mission,” she said.
When she was only 21 years old, she traveled to China by ship for six weeks.
“When you get on a boat, it’s a lot harder to go back home. The boat slowly pulls out and you keep seeing the people on the shore,” Brougham said.
Having been evacuated several times due to the Civil War in China, Brougham could only take her trumpet with her and had to leave much of her teaching materials and notes behind. When she arrived in Taiwan in 1951, people were still calling it Formosa.
“The east coast [of Taiwan] was a place that really needed a lot of young people to help because it wasn’t very advanced. So I went to help the tribes people in Hualien City high schools. I taught music, children’s education, as well as the Bible, whatever people needed,” she said.
In 1951, she started her first radio program. Using one of the first tape recorders in Taiwan, she made her home into a recording studio and recorded gospel music programs for women and children.
“You can reach more people by broadcast. People from the Buddhist temples listened to our programs, too. Once, a Buddhist nun came from the temple and said, ‘I listen to your program, do you think you can get me a Bible?’ So it was a good way to keep in touch with the people, even the fishermen along the shores,” Brougham said.
She began her English-teaching career in 1960, when she moved to Taipei.
“I thought, if we make an English program it has to be more interesting than ‘this is a book’ or ‘this is an apple.’ I thought I could make a studio and we’ll have an article and people can ask questions and discuss about it. That was why it was called Studio Classroom,” she said.
Brougham said she tried to teach people “English that you can really use,” instead of things such as slang, because she thought that if people spoke slang incorrectly, they would be looked down upon.
“I try to teach English that you don’t have to worry about saying,” she said.
She also believed that in order to understand a culture, learning the language is a must.
“We can be different but still understand. We can appreciate each other’s cultures better and take the best out of each culture,” she said.
Brougham uses a lot of music in her lessons because she believes that using music can speed up the learning process and make it more fun.
“Music is the language of the soul,” she said. “Words get into your mind, but music touches your heart.”
Having been a teacher for almost all of her life, Brougham saw teaching as a process of taking away people’s fears. For example, a swimming teacher has to take away people’s fear of the water, she said.
“If you make things less complicated, you can have fun and go to the next step. In teaching, you have to lead people. Make it simple. Take away the fear of embarrassment or failure,” Brougham said.
Brougham says she doesn’t want to retire yet because she loves her job, which to her isn’t really a job, but her way of life.
“Are you going to stop helping people just because you get older? It depends on how you look at what you do, if it’s just a job, you should retire. If you hate your job, then you should retire at 50 or 40. But if you like what you’re doing, it’s not a job, it’s just being you,” she said.
For her half a century of teaching and contribution to Taiwan, she was awarded the Order of the Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon, the nation’s highest non-military decoration, by former president Chen Shui-bian in 2002.
“I think Taiwan has a very encouraging future. We can be proud of what we’ve done, and we have to keep the young people on the right track,” she said. “That’s what Studio Classroom wants to teach.”
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS