John
John
Who He Is
John is an Irish man with a family in Japan and a long life in banking. When I met him, he was in Vietnam on a consulting contract with Techcombank, carrying the kind of range that only becomes visible when a person has already lived through several worlds.
He spoke multiple languages, moved easily between business and culture, and never seemed trapped inside his own credentials. Later I learned more about the scale of his career, including his role at Citibank China, but that was never the center of him for me.
Behind the Bar
I met John while I was still at university, working part-time as a bartender. What began as the usual customer-bartender interaction kept stretching beyond that. He would come by, we would talk, and the conversation would move somewhere better than small talk almost immediately.
At that stage, a lot of my ambitions were still private. I cared about language, business, and a larger life, but most of it still felt abstract. John made those ideas feel inhabited.
A Glimpse of Another Adulthood
What stayed with me was the kind of adulthood he represented. Experienced, calm, funny, a little cranky in a way that made him more entertaining, and completely free of self-advertisement.
He once told me:
"You have an old soul."
It was a small line, almost casual, but it stayed because it came from someone whose standards I respected.
John also widened my sense of what life could look like later on. He made Global Perspective feel real. So did Language Learning. Seeing a real polyglot up close changed the whole subject for me. It made English feel less like a school skill and more like part of a larger life.
Nights in Hanoi
Most of the friendship lived in bars, drinks, music, and long talk. We spent time at Moose and Roo and other places around Hanoi, drifting between banking, Ireland, Japan, culture, and whatever else the night opened.
He introduced me to Elvis Presley, and that did not stay a casual recommendation. Elvis became a real part of my listening life afterward. The same goes for "Kitty" by The Pogues, which still brings that period back with almost no effort.
That is the shape John has in my memory: conversation, atmosphere, and a wider horizon entering my life in a very ordinary setting.