There are many nerdy things about me, but one of the most outstanding side notes in my long history of nerdiness (NERDINESS, spellcheck. It’s a word.) is the two years I spent as a member of my high school’s constitutional law debate team.
Ahhh, yes. One year as a participant, where my unit’s nuanced take on second amendment gun rights and the ongoing tension between state and federal powers won us first place at nationals, and one year as a coach, where I edited papers and ate cookies in equal amounts, thus transitioning into my freshman 15 a few months ahead of the curve, like you do.
At that point in my life, I wanted to be either a political speech writer or a Supreme Court Justice. No interest in being a lawyer or judge, by the way… Supremes or nothin’.
Then I went to college and became an English major, so that was the end of that.
UNTIL… dun dun dunnnnnn!
I got a call on Monday asking if I could be on Malmö Radio’s morning news show to talk about Super Tuesday. They couldn’t find anyone willing to do it who was available at he right time who could also speak Swedish. (Proof yet again that is ALWAYS worth learning the language. Or at least as long as you want to be on the radio, I guess.)
Totally terrifying but totally awesome! I’m up to date on my US politics, but I’m a far cry from being an expert. So I called my friend Steve, who’s a professor in political science, and got his update, then spent an hour or so reading Politico and NPR and translating my notes into Swedish. Then a too-short night of sleep, two cups of coffee and a train ride later, it was go time!
At P4 Malmöhus!
It was really fun. Being at the radio station is really exhilarating –there is so much work going on behind the scenes and the host has to think about 100 different things at the same time—the timing of each news item, transitioning back and forth to weather, queuing up music, talking to callers and visitors… It’s really amazing.
I have to admit as well that while I am pretty good at Swedish, it was really hard to talk about politics from that objective, teacher-ish point of view. There are so many nuances I wanted to add but didn’t know the words for!
Oh well. Something to work on for next time, I guess!
Here’s the link where you can listen if you want:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=4185&artikel=5000961
I hereby give you permission to laugh at me and my silly mistakes as well. Tips are welcome in the comments. 
