All We Hear is Radio Praha (Unexpected Part 2)

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A personal update from me:

September has brought it a change in occupation for me. This change has been a long time coming, and was a milestone on the road of life that seemed very distant when I was (totally unexpectedly) recommended for the job back in March.

Now September is here, and that means I’ve joined the team at Radio Prague International, the foreign-language department of Czech Radio. Having once been interviewed by them, I now find myself on the other side of the studio desk!

This new job involves writing, recording and broadcasting Czech-related content at the offices of Czech Radio in Prague. Each working day primarily revolves around the production of a show that offers listeners a smorgasbord of news, reports and interviews concerning life in the Czech Republic. I’ve so far interviewed artists, academics, translators and civil servants. There’s great scope for dashing down corridors to go record some dubbing, or rushing around the city with a microphone.

It’s early days still, and I have so much to learn, but the experience so far has been tremendous fun. Czech Radio is an institution with an impressive heritage (the second oldest European broadcaster, after the BBC), and there is something so enjoyable and comfortable about sitting before the microphone in the recording studio. Whenever the nerves subside enough to feel it, it all feels meant to be.

After the academic marathon of a PhD, I also have a sense that this job will be very good for me. The PhD student can live quite an eremitic life, especially in the infamous final stage of writing up, and that takes its toll. The ordinary trappings of a day job bring some much-needed psychological balance – like a daily schedule of work that actually has an end. I am also utterly in love with Czech Radio’s staff canteen.

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In the rare spare moments for reflection, I now have to contemplate myself as someone outside of academia. Linguistics and language teaching/researching have defined my whole adult life so far. Now, for the foreseeable future, I’ve taken a step away from them.

Reluctance to leave the coalface of historical linguistics made me hesitant to accept the radio job at first. The incessant conversation that is academia can move at such a quick pace – so quickly that any time away from the cutting edge might leave me ‘rusty’ and my knowledge out of date. I want to continue to define as and call myself a linguist, but what does that mean, now that I will soon lack the rubber stamp of a university affiliation? I fully recognise the value and good work of independent scholars, but the criteria to claim that status are unclear to me.

Yet, while the PhD journey produced a scholar still completely besotted by his field and research, I will also admit to being burned out. The final months of doctoral life, followed immediately by an intense four-month project (which I’m still discouraged to talk about publicly), left me exhausted and completely despairing of my own academic worth. I wholeheartedly loved the experience of being within the academy, but the thought became undeniable that I would not be missed if I left the party.

Who knows what will come next? I certainly don’t. I’d prefer to say only au revoir or na shledanou to university life, rather than adieu or sbohem. For the moment, I’ll still be keeping an eye out for academic positions, and trying to restart the engine of original research for any upcoming conferences.

I also remain completely committed to all my personal linguistic projects, like this website and the ALILI podcast. I beg your patience though, as all of these things are on hold for this month, while I gradually work out at my new job what the heck is happening every day.

Nonetheless, if I can be of any help or use for linguists and linguistics, they need only ask. I’m not hard to find online.

END.

Cover picture: yours truly, by Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

Picture of Palpatine from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrequelMemes/comments/86vlia/when_you_put_your_hand_up_and_the_teacher_asks/