📙 Part 2: Describe a person you know who is from a different culture

This episode's vocabulary

Unto (preposition) - to.

To be set in your ways (idiom) - not liking change in your life.

Stubborn (adj.) - a stubborn person is determined to do what he or she wants and refuses to do anything else.

Long-term (adj.) - continuing a long time into the future.

Gimmick (noun) - something that is not serious or of real value that is used to attract people's attention or interest temporarily, especially to make them buy something.

Dead-end job (noun) - a job in which there is no chance of progressing to a better, more important job.

Presence (noun) - a quality that makes people notice or admire you, even when you are not speaking.

Prosperity (noun) - the state of being successful and having a lot of money.

Questions and Answers

M: Bring it on, Rory, off you go.

R: It shouldn't be easy to pick just about anyone these days since everyone seems to be a walking culture unto themselves. However, the person I would like to talk about is Vanya, the producer of the podcast we work on together. Actually, he might be a very unique example of this because of his background. In addition to coming from Russia, and being a Russian speaker, he also lived in Cyprus and other places around the world like China. So he's had a very international lifestyle and a higher class of education and life experience than most people get in their youth actually. We first met just over three years ago, when we worked at the same company that ran a chain of language schools around Moscow and in the Moscow region. I'd been working there a lot longer than him. So I was very set in my ways, and quite stubborn. But he eventually convinced me that doing the podcast long-term was a great idea, rather than the gimmick I thought it was. We didn't actually meet in person initially, though, everything was done by email. And only then, after I asked a lot of questions, did anything actually come together. Despite my initial dislike of the idea of using technology and having a web presence, I quickly discovered that I quite liked being around him and Maria. That's one of the people who co-host the podcast with us. We share a similar sense of humour, despite our differences and background, and a roughly similar set of goals and ambitions. I think that's the proof that no matter where you come from in the world, if you share language and ideas, or at least have a general direction in life, you can find people to get along and be successful with. If I hadn't run into Vanya, I think my life would be very different and much, much more boring than it would have been otherwise. I imagine I'd still be in that dead-end job and certainly wouldn't have the presence or the prosperity that I do now. So I'm quite fortunate in that way. And I think, well, at least hopefully, other people who know him will agree with that as well. Not just about what he's done for me, but about what he's done for others as well.

M: And do your friends like this person?

R: Yes. Everyone that's met him has really enjoyed talking to him.

M: Hey, what a nice story! Now, dear listener, you know the whole team.

R: Almost the whole team.

M: Yeah. Almost the whole team. Yeah, we have Donya as well. We have Vanya, Danya.

R: Danya, Vanya, Masha and Rorochka.