Hear it in English.
| Auteur | Sethi, Aradhna |
| Fonction | Feature |
With English coming in on the fifth spot after the four national languages of Switzerland, English audio media is hard to find. All the same, it does exist. Swiss News finds out more.
Once in Switzerland, your eyes get accustomed to seeing written information in German, French or Italian. For a foreigner, alien chatter fills the air in offices, on trains, trains and buses, and even on the radio. Tune into any of the radio stations and you find the local news in local languages, but apparently none in the language you understand completely. Lessons in German, French and Italian sure help in the business of day-to-day living, but you need a lot more practice, fluency and understanding of the languages to be able to grasp news. Patience pays. And listening to the local lingo sure goes a long way. But in the meantime, you don't want to be completely out at sea regarding current affairs, regional concerns and local matters.
'Swiss News' found outh that there are over 40 private radio stations in Switzerland, but not all broadcast English programs. However, if you have satellite TV, the probability of you catching waves of BBC radio channels, Sky Radio and more increases. For those who don't want the dish antenna, despair not, for Swiss News has discovered more than just English music on some of the radio stations broadcasting within the country.
Tune into Info in English
There is the SRI or Swiss Radio International (SRI)--an enterprise of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
The company--a public service enterprise under the Swiss companies act--was founded in 1934 and is national holding company with individual regional organizations. The Swiss Broadcast Corporation funds SRI in part. Other funds come from the foreign ministry. However, the government has no control over media coverage and content management. Also, being a state funded public service, there is no advertising on the channel.
Among other Swiss national languages, the radio division produces English news round-ups and snippets, which are broadcast in short slots through the day.
The English section is headed by Jonas Hughes, a journalist who worked with the BBC World Service in London till four years ago. He joined SRI in 1999. Says Hughes, "SRI has been producing English programs and bulletins for over 60 years. I joined as a radio journalist. And over the years, the one main change has been the decision for SRI to move from being exclusively an international radio station to...
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