Out of the world's approximately 7.8 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English. The majority aren't native English speakers, however. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. The most common first language is Chinese, followed distantly by Spanish and then, in third, comes English.
Did you catch that second sentence? The majority are not native English speakers. That means there are millions of people from countries other than the U.S. learning English every day.
Of course, podcasting has a major role in so many non-English speaking people learning the language. Keep in mind is that English is the language with some of the most confounding grammar, syntax, rules and contradictions among the world's non-tonal languages.
Simple English News Daily is a 7-minute daily news update that is
targeted at people who are learning English or have English as a
second language. It is also known by its acronym SEND7, which
stands for Simple English News Daily in 7 minutes. Every episode
covers news from at least four continents, and aims to be as unbiased and neutral as possible.
SEND7 was founded by Stephen Devincenzi in April 2020 and episodes are released Monday to Friday. Stephen hosts most episodes. Ben Mallett and Juliet Martin normally host one episode per week each. SEND7 is totally independent and has never received external funding.
It became profitable in mid-2022, through subscriptions and programmatic ads, and gives 10% of its profits to effective altruism charities.
Looking at download numbers, the SEND 7 podcast has grown from 78,000 in January 2022 to 156,000 in November 2022 to 338,000 in November 2023. Japan accounts for over 10 percent of all downloads, with Germany, Italy, and Poland close behind.
Here is one of the testimonials from a faithful listener, Gaetano Brucculeri: "I listen SEND7 podcast because I'm an intermediate English student, even at my age, 65. SEND7 helps me to improve my English and informs me on the world news. I appreciate your behavior and I hope you will never stop."
SEND 7 even has a section for teachers: "Most SEND7 listeners are individual English learners, or people with English as a second language, however, some teachers find the podcast useful for engaging their students. The language level used in SEND7 podcast changes slightly every day, but is generally similar to the CEFR B2 (upper intermediate) level."
I realize that I have a 98% U.S. readership, but you can still check it out and read about their mission and perhaps support them in their noble quest.
It's another example of podcasting being the vehicle for doing some good in the world.
Kudos to SEND7.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank You for your input and feedback. If you requested a response, we will do so as soon as possible.