It’s 5:55 P.M. and triiinnnng the alarm goes off. Subarna hurriedly switches on the radio and sits on the couch beside her husband, Sunil and their thirteen year old son, Aditya. Silence fills up their living room as they diligently listen to their favourite programme 'Obla Air'. With sincere attention the family listens to the programme and once the episode concludes, they debate over the weekly quiz competition. They then send an SMS entry and wait eagerly for the next episode hopeful to win the BC goodie bag yet again! This is something that happens every week at the Khanal household in the far eastern part of Nepal.
Since its inception in February, the family has been regularly listening to our ‘LearnEnglish Radio Obla Air’ Series. “Obla Air is music to our ears with full of interesting, lively characters which keeps us engaged throughout and at the same time boosts our understanding of different accents”, discloses the family.
Subarna shares a hearty laugh remembering those early days. “I was browsing through the newspaper when came across the advert on Obla Air. I was elated to learn that we could listen and improve our English free of cost, staying at home”. With a big grin on their faces, they unanimously express it’s an ‘encouraging platform’ for listeners like them who are keen on learning and improving English.
The weekly competition is also a big bonus for the family. While Subarna won the first Goodie Bag in the family, Aditya’s mobile number was selected the winner in the next couple of episodes and luckily Sunil was the winner recently. “Every episode has cliff hangers and that excites me to look forward to the following week’s episode and also to learn if I had answered the quiz correctly or not”, proclaims Aditya.
The family feels listening to the series regularly has to a great extent improved not just their listening skills but also their vocabulary, reading, pronunciation and conversing skills. Aditya feels the positive difference in his studies at school and points out that he now understands difficult vocabulary with ease and in particular pronounces it correctly. While Sunil and Subarna enjoy listening to the lively series, they have not been able to put English into practice on a daily basis. “We don’t speak English at our workplace. But if required to speak with foreign clients at work, we feel we have built up that confidence”.
With the first series concluded and the second currently on air we are on the lookout for more of such Obla Air families across Nepal!