TQ 044 Jonathan from Germany

(I'm still on my summer break at my mother's house in Arkansas, the U.S. Here is an interview from a year and a half ago. German listeners may recognize Jonathan's last name, because his father is a famous author.)

I hosted Jonathan and his friend Janek at my apartment in Nanning for three days. They are on a gap year (between high school and university) and have recently been volunteer teachers in Myanmar. They stayed with me as they were cycling from Myanmar to Hong Kong. Jonathan has lived in several places, including Hong Kong, New York state, Berlin and Potsdam, Germany. He has a near-native accent in English because of living in the U.S. as a boy and has a very broad vocabulary because of a good education and untold hours spent reading books. He's a vegetarian who likes sushi. Listen as he talks about how Germans celebrate Easter (Easter bunny, Easter eggs) and about how unique the Burmese (Myanmarese?) capitol of Naypyidaw is.

Warning! Jonathan speaks quickly sometimes and he uses a lot of words you may not know. Here are some of the words that may be unfamiliar to you: to theorize, derived from, to tone down, to slack off, trilogy, grief, interaction, intuitive, to reinforce, brevity, nuclear family, to correlate, to be miffed, hit or miss, dye, bonfire, gigantic, surreal, testimony, and astrology.