Tune in and learn a language!
I’m in a Brazilian hiking group and new hikers always ask me how I learned Portuguese with a Portuguese accent. My response is always: KSQQ, Rádio Comercial Portuguesa 96.1FM in San Jose, CA, a Portuguese Community Radio. I listened through a lot of ads for funeral homes and Catholic masses while driving. And low and behold, I learned Portuguese.
Judy Keen of USA TODAY published an article on foreign language radio stations in the US and their problems to stay in business, Foreign-language radio stations provide connection to home . Another addition to the article should have been that those radio stations not only keep foreign nationals and immigrants in the US connected to each other and in tune with what’s going on in their home countries, but they also serve as a resource for language learners to have a constant source of information in their target language.
If it weren’t for my intermittent tuning into Portuguese radio, I probably would not speak the language as well as I do. Now my accent is mixed between a Brazilian and Portuguese one but my continental Portuguese vowels and “sh” sounds are distinctly from the Iberian peninsula and I’ve never lived there.
Keep those radio stations on and help language learners pick up a new language while in traffic.
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