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MINDY RATNER: She came to the building on a tour. She was brought to meet me during my air shift. We had a nice chat. And she heard me do my work. And then she said, it would be lovely if you'd come and work for us. Well--

[LAUGHTER]

--I didn't mean to be impolite, but I laughed out loud. I mean, what kind of an idea is that? Go to China, be on the radio. I mean, it seemed so absolutely outlandish to me and very kind of her. I felt very honored that she would say that. But I just couldn't conceive of that as a real, honest-to-goodness opportunity.

BOB POTTER: And how long ago was that?

MINDY RATNER: That was back in October. The fact of the matter is that there was a fellow doing a classical music program on the English service of China Radio International. He'd done it for five or six years and was retiring and coming back to the United States. So there actually was an opening.

But I just-- I let it go. It just seemed too fantastic somehow. And then in January, I got an email asking if I would be interested in coming there to work. And I thought, well, an opportunity like this doesn't come to most people even once. It came around to me twice. And I just--

BOB POTTER: Time to grab that brass ring.

MINDY RATNER: Yes, it really was.

BOB POTTER: How will your announcing duties differ from what you do here?

MINDY RATNER: I'm not really sure that they will. I'm going to be doing in China essentially what I do here. I'll be talking about classical music. I'm also very much looking forward to something that I don't get to do very often, and that is I will get to choose all my own music.

BOB POTTER: Well, that'll be fun.

MINDY RATNER: I'm very happy about that. That'll be a nice change for me. I know that China Radio International does have a new building with equipment that is not unlike what we use here at Minnesota Public Radio. I'll be working with CDs, as I do here, and digital audio tape, as I do here. So that will be very much the same.

BOB POTTER: I wonder why they decided they want to broadcast classical music in English. What kind of an audience is there for it, I wonder?

MINDY RATNER: Well, I understand from the boss that it's a very well-educated audience, university people, professional people, people at the various embassies. Keep in mind, Beijing, of course, is the capital. And so there's a fairly high level of sophistication, I think, amongst the foreigners who are there. And there are a lot of Chinese people who love to practice their English.

BOB POTTER: Do you know how to eat with chopsticks yet?

MINDY RATNER: I do.

BOB POTTER: You probably mastered that years ago.

MINDY RATNER: Yeah, I've been doing it for a while. But I'm learning little details about how you do things politely in China, for instance, how to take something out of a communal pot. You turn the chopsticks around. So you use the top end because it's cleaner. And it's more polite to do it that way. People don't hug in Asia.

BOB POTTER: Now, that'll be tough for you because you're a big hugger.

MINDY RATNER: Yeah, I am. I am a big hugger. It's very true. They show their enthusiasm in more reserved ways than I usually do, so--

BOB POTTER: Well, Mindy Ratner, best of luck to you.

MINDY RATNER: Thanks, Bob.

BOB POTTER: Good luck.