Turn the Radio Up!

Tonight two colleagues and I spoke (Dutch) on the local radio! I was -- how to put this? -- very nervous. We listened to the recording afterwards, and everyone agreed that it went well. There was plenty of bantering with the interviewer, some good jokes, and best of all, our message got across. All in all, a fun 15 minutes.

What was the topic of the program? A cookbook. Some folks here in the neighborhood (Stedenwijk, it's called) are working together to make a community cookbook featuring not only recipes, but also interviews with (and photos of) the folks who submit the recipes. We're hoping to have lots of different cultures represented -- Morrocan, Surinamese, Iraqi, Dutch, American, etc. It's a very fun, very engaging project! Hopefully in less than a year the book will be complete.

On a personal note, it was a thrilling feeling to be able to utter grammatically coherent sentences in Dutch on the radio! I still have a strong accent, and my pronunciation is not perfect ... but all in all, I was happy to be understandable. I was quite glad to have the support of two native Dutch speakers, who did much more of the actual talking than me. But I was also glad to have the opportunity to give my Dutch a go like this. What a rush!