Celebrated English-language educator Doris Brougham, also known locally as Peng Meng-hui (彭蒙惠), died on Tuesday evening. She was 98.
Brougham was the creator of Studio Classroom (空中英語教室) — a popular English-language radio program which first aired in 1962 — and the magazine Let’s Talk in English (大家說英語). Her work had benefited three generations of English-language learners in Taiwan.
Brougham in 2022 received the Order of Brilliant Star for her contribution to Taiwanese society. She was among the first foreigners to obtain permanent legal residency in Taiwan and became a citizen in May last year.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs
Born 1926 to a Christian family in Seattle, Brougham at 21 left home to become a missionary in Shanghai. Following the Chinese Civil War, she moved from Shanghai to Taiwan.
Brougham did missionary work with Atayal communities in Hualien County, where she joined a local basketball team and taught Sunday school.
In 1951, she produced Taiwan’s first evangelical radio program.
Later, she launched Studio Classroom after realizing Taiwanese lacked educational resources to learn English, Brougham told the Taipei Times in an interview published in 2022.
“Having witnessed several times Taiwanese youths having a hard time communicating — and thus losing the opportunity to integrate internationally because of their inadequate English — I realized there was a strong need to teach them English,” she said.
After it obtained permission for a free slot from the Broadcasting Corp of China, Brougham’s program broadcast weekly and spawned several magazines including Let’s Talk in English.
Her program and magazines supplemented the classroom material for countless English learners.
Media success and unexpected celebrity status came as a surprise, as she had entered the radio business for religious purposes, Brougham said.
“It all started when I thought broadcasting would be a great evangelical way to reach people,” she added.
President William Lai (賴清德) was deeply saddened to hear the news of Brougham’s passing, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said.
Studio Classroom is part of the collective memory for generations of Taiwanese and the nation expresses its gratitude for Brougham’s decades of work being a force for good and giving Taiwan a global voice, she cited the president as saying.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) wrote on Facebook that Brougham’s death “is a blow to Taiwanese education, but her legacy of spiritual wealth and exemplary life would forever remain an inspiration.”
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in a social media post said: “Although you have departed, Taiwan would forever be your home. You have fought well and finished the race... May the crown of righteousness forever rest on your brow.”
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