Знакомьтесь с нашим новым другом! Сегодня у постоянного ведущего подкастов новый собеседник - Джек Тэн. Джек рассказывает свою историю путешествий по миру. Чем похожи и чем различаются, на его взгляд, русские, китайцы и американцы. А еще Максим и Джек поговорят на очень необычную тему - как найти свою пару, как правильно выбрать спутника и что нам может в этом помочь. Все, кто в активном поиске, услышат полезные советы, и всех без исключения ждёт еще больше английского на Puzzle English!
Хотите услышать продолжение беседы с Джеком? Оставляйте свои отзывы.

Текст подкаста "Nice to meet you, Jack Tan! "
 
Над текстом выпуска работали: 
 
• Анастасия Долгова
• Екатерина Тарасова
 
- You're listening to the Puzzle English podcast.
- Доброго времени суток всем подслушивателям, в
эфире очередной выпуск подкаста Puzzle English. Если вы с нами впервые, это
подкаст для тех, кто изучает английский язык. Проходит все в формате беседы с
носителем языка. Вопросы я задаю по-русски, а наши гости отвечаю по-английски.
И напротив меня – нет, не Хью Хьюевич, как вы, наверно, подумали, а Джек, наш
китайский гость, который родился в Китае, но большую часть своей жизни прожил в
СШа, и, конечно же, английский учил с детства. Привет, Джек! Расскажи мне и
нашим слушателям свою историю.
 
- Ok, so I'll tell you my story. My name is Jack. I am somewhat of a global citizen. I was born in China in the mid 80s, at time when the country was just transitioning from a very socialist system to a more capitalistic, but still very state-managed economy. When I was seven, my mom took me to join my father, who was pursuing his PhD in the US. The contrast between China and the US was extreme. I remember going to the grocery store for the first time in Wisconsin and just being in all the other shiny and perfect produce everywhere. Everything was the same size, and there were so many things to choose from. In China we had almost nothing. You go to the market, it would be outside, and there is no meat, no seafood, everything is scarce. So everything seemed so new and interesting to me from the perspective
of a young child: from the cheap toaster to my dad's $200 car. I was fascinated by everything. After five years in Wisconsin my family moved another six or seven times before settling down near Boston, so I got to see many different cities and people at a very early age. I guess, it was this early childhood experience of moving from place to place, that instilled in me this need to experience new places and new people all the time. So long story short, I outgrew the US. I wanted a challenge. The challenge of going [bad word] foreign. To me without any friends, [bad word] of the language. So, at first, I thought I would spend some time in Warsaw. I came to the city, you know, everything was great, I was meeting all the expats. But within three weeks I knew almost everyone in [bad word]  So, I felt, like, I needed
somewhere more diverse bigger city, and that's how I ended up in Moscow.
- Джек, а что ты знал о России до того, как сюда приехал?
- [bad word] in the past few years has been in the news quite often, and it raised my own awareness to the country in 2015. The stereotypes [bad word] people [bad word] in general are very strong in the US [bad word] men are always the bad guys, the women are the
escorts in Western media. And, similarly, Asian men are always playing the role of the nerd, the women are  objects. However, I knew, [bad word] has a very deep and rich history, and it bridges the gap between East and West for more than a thousand years. So when I visited Moscow and St. Petersburg in the summer of 2015 for the first time, I was absolutely amazed at the architecture, and a [bad word] sense of wonder surrounded me for the whole trip. At that time I knew, I wanted to spend part of my life in this country. I mean, having spent many
years in the east and west, when [bad word] my global experience by living here for a while. My favorite destinations on earth include Taiwan, Qingdao, Seoul Korea, San Diego and many places in the US, but definitely New York and California are my favorites. I love spending time in nature, so anywhere with, you know, mountains and lakes I would feel very much at home.
- Если тебе нравится природа и горы, тогда тебе обязательно стоит хотя бы раз съездить на Кавказ.
 
- And also Lake Baikal.
- Джек, вот вы перебрались в США, и что, как проходила твоя жизнь, чем ты занимался?
- Life in the US is quite different, depending on which state one lives in, and which career path one follows. For instance, when I first moved to the US, I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is the state of the Midwest, and is known for farming, beer and cheese, and maybe football, hockey. Spending the first five years of my American experience there was very interesting, because most people there had never seen an Asian people before... Asian person before. And I felt like some sort of alien to them. By the time I was 12, my family moved to Arizona, and there I actually felt like I fit in a bit more with everyone else, because the population was 30% Hispanic. So, naturally, people just assumed, I was some sort of light-skinned Hispanic guy, and they didn't view me as an alien anymore. So, that's definitely better there. Life in these places was pretty relaxing as a kid, and for my parents as well. We had plenty of free time on the weekends to drive into the mountains or to go fishing in lakes. In Arizona, especially, I remember going to the canyons on weekends. For those of you, who don't know Arizona weather, it's, like, I don't know, 40-45 degrees in the summer, but even in the summer you can drive, maybe, one and a half hours to the mountains, and you can see snow. So, the outdoors life was really awesome in Arizona. So…I guess, we were relatively poor back then, I think, my dad was earning maybe $30,000-35,000 per year, and that salary in the US at that time was slightly below average. But we had a lot of free time, because we didn't live in a big city. So, I guess, even though we were relatively poor, the childhood was fun. If you contrast that later to… in my life, when I moved to New York City, and when I was walking… working for these big banks on Wall Street, I would get in to work before the sun came up, and I would leave long after the sun had set. So, you know, during the winter or the fall I would never see the sun. Yeah… On average my friends and I worked probably at least 70 hours per week and at most up to maybe 90 hours per week.
- А в чем именно заключалась твоя работа? 
- I worked in [bad word] credit, so at the time we were packaging loans and mortgage securities into some products we could sell as bonds. So, basically, making investment products and selling them to other banks, to other funds, to very rich people. That's what I did for…for these banks. And every day was kind of like a battle. Every little detail mattered, ok? You would work, you know, 12 hours, after 12 hours you go for some dinner, you go back to the office, you do more work. But every single detail in your work mattered. And if you mess up one thing, you know, your boss is so angry, it's, like, your life depends on this thing, right. If you get it wrong, it's almost, like, you… you would just die, right. That's how serious people took this work. So, my friends and I all earned six figures in the first year out of university,
so the pay was good, but, you know, I realized later, that it's not all about money. I went into finance for the money, and pretty quickly I realized, that that's not something, that should drive me, it's not something, that can drive me long-term.
- Ты говоришь так, будто разочарован в этой работе.
 
- It felt... It felt challenging at first,