As one of the only English-language teaching programs to stand the test of time in Taiwan, Brougham's Studio Classroom series of magazines now has a subscription rate of 600,000 issues per month, and her radio and television shows are broadcast throughout the day on half-a-dozen radio stations and an equal number of television networks.
What was a once solely a Taiwan institution has gone on to become a global phenomenon. Studio Classroom is now broadcast on television in Canada, Europe, Korea, China and Kazakhstan, and her radio show is listened to by thousands of avid students of the English language in the US, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and China.
"When we began we had no idea that the show would go all over the world. I get letters from all over the world today from people who watch the show. We got a lovely letter from a girl in Iran recently," said Brougham.
Always looking for new challenges and new ways in which to meet the ever-increasing demand for English language learning, Brougham's energy and lust for life has seen her venturing into areas that few 70-years-olds would dare to tread.
She has met modern technological breakthroughs with the same enthusiasm she showed when teaching in sleepy Hualien. Her Studio Classroom moved into cyberspace in 2000 and, in a joint venture with Sony, the company's television studios recently installed a state-of-the-art virtual-reality blue-screen system.
In the coming months, Brougham's calming intonation, which was first heard on transistor radio over 40 years ago, will be available anywhere and at anytime of the day when Studio Classroom makes its way onto cellular phones.
"It's a public service. When you get such positive responses from so many people whose lives you've touched, you just feel like doing more and more," she said. "It's certainly more than money -- after all, you can't take that with you, can you?"
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