How are we getting on with languages? A mega-native level? A level that reduces you to tears? Medioc…? This is the interview I did on the legendary Vaughan Radio English show, No Excuses, where I talked about tinnitus and my blog Mundo Tinnitus.
And if you’re wondering what Vaughan Radio is…WOW! Which rock have you been living under for the last 40 years?
Vaughan was founded over 42 years ago now and is the biggest English ‘academy’ in Spain, with 440 English teachers from 56 different nationalities (the youngest is 19 years old and the oldest is 67!). They have their own radio station and you may have seen them over the years on TVE1 & TVE 2.
One of the cornerstones of the Vaughan philosophy is to never hire the typical boring teacher and only to hire teachers who can inspire and change peoples’ lives. True to that philosophy, amongst their 440 teachers, you can find former soldiers, clowns, doctors, bankers and even airline pilots.
Turns out one of their teachers is even a direct descendent of the Chinese Emperor, Ming. And another was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category where Bob Dylan was the eventual winner (wowzers!)
The mastermind of this universe, the one and only Richard Vaughan, ‘the man with a plan’ and a true son of Texas, decided one day to found the first English-language teaching station.
Everybody told him he was crazy and that he was making a mistake; that no Spaniard would start listening to radio in English.
But Richard had a picture in his head:
A bored Spaniard, stuck in a traffic jam in a major Spanish city, scanning through the radio stations until…Bam! He finds an English-speaking radio programme, he likes it and he’s hooked forever.
So, despite the advice of his family and friends (or maybe because of it), Richard started Vaughan Radio.
Now his radio station has more than 6 million listeners per year all over the world (from Haiti to Tokyo to Siberia). And 3 million TDT listeners, more than Radio Marca! Amongst their loyal listeners are actors, Prime Ministers and football players.
SUPER COOL FACT: The exact picture Richard had in his head came to life in the documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo, where he appears listening to Vaughan Radio as he drives his car («Professor Vaughan», as he calls him):
Richard, you were right.
I didn’t get stuck in any traffic jams but, a few years ago, I was in the process of gutting my beach house from head to toe, hands covered in paint, no mobile coverage and with the radio on, when I stumbled upon Vaughan Radio for the first time.
I was cleaning the radio and the it accidentally switched from a music station to a station where everything was in English (‘Disaster! I hate English!‘) It was stuck and I couldn’t change it.
To my surprise, the presenter was teaching in a way I had never seen before in my school or university teachers. His way of teaching was…just cool!
That evening, I learned how to pronounce the word ‘vegetable’ like a native for the first time and I was hooked for good. So much so that 5 years ago, I packed my bags for London where my life turned around and now I work for the BBC (not too bad!).
Because of all of that, I am honoured to have so many friends at Vaughan, who I always drop in to visit when I go to Madrid. Like Fitz, the charismatic radio presenter and his programme No Excuses.
Also read:
30 celebrities who suffer from tinnitus, just like you
«A Star Is Born» and the real torture of suffering from tinnitus
10 myths about tinnitus that you have heard (again and again)
No Excuses
Vaughan Radio broadcasts non-stop, 24 hours a day and one of its flagship programmes is No Excuses, directed by the proud Irishman, Fitz (Aindrías Fitzgerald) and which goes out every morning from 09.30 to 10.30.
It’s a rapid-fire questions and answers programme. Several Vaughan students attend and Fitz bombards them with questions to work on their agility, correcting them down to the last comma.
Fitz (@fitzcork en Twitter) is famous for his relentless style and for never repeating the same question twice. The students (affectionately called «victims» in the Vaughan universe) aren’t even allowed to write anything down during the programme. You need to be wide awake and get it the first time around!
Fitz is one of the heavyweights at Vaughan, father-figure and mentor to its 440 teachers. In the true tradition of the Vaughan philosophy, Fitz was a banker in his previous life until one day he upped sticks and came to Spain to find his vocation.
SUPER COOL FACT: Fitz is the son of Gene Fitzgerald, admired and beloved Minister for Labour, Public Service and Finance of Ireland in the 70s and 80s. He was known as a politician of the people because there were always long queues of people at the door of his home in Cork and he heard out every, single one of them; without exception. A vocational and principled politician, the kind that no longer exist. He was the politician for whom a young Steve Jobs had rush out and buy his first formal suit and the politician to whom President Ronald Reagan confessed during a dinner in Washington D.C. that he still got nervous when speaking in public. But in spite of often meeting Popes and kings, Gene Fitzgerald remained humble to the end, holding firmly to the line from the sublime poem by Kipling «If you can walk with kings but not lose the common touch».
Spreading the word on tinnitus
Fitz invited me to the radio to talk about tinnitus and my blog in his classic question-answer format.
It seems hard to believe, but there are still a lot of people who don’t know what tinnitus is and are unaware of millions of us suffering from it every day. Sincere thanks to everybody in the Vaughan Community for helping us to spread the word a little more.
Also read:
The 12 tinnitus treatments I personally tested (what works?)
Chinese Medicine: the only method that has truly reduced my tinnitus (in a week)
In the studio with us too was Tommy Hay, Scottish presenter of the Vaughan show Talk With Tommy and the charming student, Mercedes, who Fitz wouldn’t allow say one single word out of place.
Here is a snippet of the show (if you need a translation, click on the subtitles for the Spanish translation):
You can hear the whole programme here.
And if you want to listen to Vaughan Radio online 24 hours a day or find out a little more about them, you can click here.
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