It’s rare that The Audio Addict receives mail but when we do it’s a pleasure to share it . Here’s a response to the latest post about NHK Radio Japan’s “World Interactive” and its former host, Sumiko (Sumi) Zushi.
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Hi
Stumbled across your post about ‘World Interactive’ on NHK World as I hadn’t listened for a while and wondered where it went.
Thanks for providing the news about its demise – nice to know other people loved it as much as I did – I had a letter read out on it once.
I listened to WI before Sumi did it and to be honest probably preferred the previous presenter Kay Fujimoto who I thought seemed a little warmer, although Sumi’s English and accent was much clearer (she studied in Edinburgh didn’t she?).
I’m English so perhaps I am too used to hearing Japanese people speak with an American/Japanese accent when they speak English. Sumi sounded like she was on the BBC! It was very impressive.
Anyway ‘Friends Around the World’ seems pretty good, though I could do without the Western co-host. Doesn’t seem to be as many listener’s letters either. Still, it seems pretty good. Nice to hear Kay again.
Did you know Kay Fujimoto did her own blog? It hasn’t been updated in a while though. http://kay-fujimoto.blogspot.com/
Anyway thanks for your excellent blog!
Well done.
Mark
UK
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The Audio Addict replies…. Thanks Mark! Great to hear from you. Your comments are very much appreciated. The new show “Friends Around The World” started amidst the tragedy of the tsunami aftermath and so is doing pretty well IMHO under very trying circumstances. Kay is thoroughly delightful, agreed. But I started listening to WI around the time that Sumi Zushi took over in 2008 and so will always fondly associate it with her. I suspect she usually read from a script she’d written and so might have sounded a bit more reserved than Kay and Mick’s seeming ad libs (although I’m sure they work from some form of a script too.) I think whenever she interacted with live guests Sumi sounded a lot more informal and less “BBC”. Whatever – to my jaded North American ears her voice was always warm and friendly and classy. Sumi remains one of my all time favourites of the English-speaking announce staff on NHK Radio Japan. Thanks again for your comments and very kind words, Mark. Nice to know that somebody is actually out there. And re Kay’s blog… it’s also nice to know that there’s someone worse than me at updating!
