Here are a few of the messages we have received. We've kept them as written.
"VOA my VOA, wot & how else wud i hav bin able 2 hav such objectv & unbiased reportage of world events & news witout u. Dat am a bit informd of day2day events in d world , i owe 2 u my darling VOA."
• Segun Sunday (comment to our blog)
"@VOABuzz U have earned credibility…VOA’s coverage on radio r more powerful than TV. Live coverage can’t b substituted.
• Vimal – India (comment to our Twitter)
"Iam very like of your progrems in Pakistan. it is my frist E.mail in any progream. i am a student in Class B.A"
• Malik – Pakistan
"I have to say that I learned English w/the VOA.I am from Mayari, Cuba and back in the 80's and 90's a group of friends and I started like a little cell to study English. We used to listen to the VOA S.English programs in our houses. For that purpose we used a Russian radio good for short waves and after the end of it we got together at a park and we used to practice what we have learned that day.It was amazing how we begun to wider our vocab.and speech.After a couple of year we became fluent.Needless to say that it was a turning point in my life.In 1993 I was rescued from the sea by a US Navy Destroyer.I remember that when the boat was getting close to our raft a marine shouted.I am going to throw a line! and I said:Go ahead Sir! I'll get it!The crew members got in shock!They did not expected a response in English."
• Andres – formerly Cuba, now U.S.
"Hello my name is Zundui, from Mongolia. First of all thank you very much for your radio. I started listening your radio broadcast since end of cold war 1989. It brought me lot of knowledge including English language and I'm always happy to listen your radio. Couple years ago I even wrote a letter to then VOA sent me World Encyclopedia book. I still have that book and every time big news comes on VOA i open that book find country location of the events end facts about country or region. Now i have internet in my house a lot of things changed, and many good things happened. I learned English. I hope it is not so bad."
• Zundui – Mongolia
“I started to learn English over 8 years ago and The Voice of America became one of my best friend ever since. I soon found out listening is a very good way to improve my English. Day by day, I realize my language is getting better and better and today I decide to drop some line to express my big thanks to “My best friend” (the V.O.A).”
• Dung – Vietnam
“Dear VOA Editors:
How are you? As I write this letter, I am feeling very emotional. Why? Because after listening to your programs for so many years, I am finally now having a chance to write you a letter for the first time. I am a listener, but my father has been listening to your programs even longer than I. So much so that whenever I am listening to your programming, he knows exactly what I am listening to. In fact, I am one of your loyal listeners. From the time that I first learned about VOA from my junior high school class, I was hooked. Now, I am a university student, and I can’t break the habit of listening to your programs."
• Tingting - China
“You cannot imagine, nor can I express to you with words alone, the cumulative and varied emotions that are present and flooding my mind now that I am writing to you.
I have been a Voice of America listener since its early years when it went on the air in Spanish, sometime in the early 60’s. Then I listened as a young child and teenager first, and later as a young man and adult, together with my father Luis Mariano Alfaro and one of his brothers, named Angel Luis, who both passed away many years ago and for whom I want to offer this small tribute, that their names be broadcast by the station – since it was from them that I inherited this fondness for Voice of America. I am now 52 years old and I have been listening to it for more than 40 years.
In those years, it was a crime to listen to this station in Cuba. We would put the volume very low and we would listen with great secrecy so that neighbors or passersby would not notice…”
• Luis – Cuba
“Every evening, as the sun sets over the hills to the west, I listen to the 17: 38 edition of the Sunny Side of Sports while eating dinner. Your program provides the perfect cap to my day, and I think that even the goats and chickens that roam in front of my house are hooked on your show.”
• Johannes – Ghana