Sequoia

Ate dinner with another BeiYu student today. I was eating at a
Japanese place in the student cafeteria and noticed we had different
types of the sushi that comes with a meal, so I asked him if we could
trade a piece each. He then came over and sat at my table. He is
also studying for the summer, although only one month. He teaches at
a university for training teachers to teach Chinese through English in
Shanxi province, and is a linguistics major with a very good knowledge
of English (good enough to explain the more difficult parts of
Chomsky's generative theory of linguistics which I couldn't understand
in Chinese). He also offered some interesting insights into current
Chinese events, such as why the Chinese fear swine flu much more than
Americans – while in pretty much all of America, swine flu is not much
more annoying than standard flu, in China, since seeing a doctor is so
much more expensive, even getting standard flu is a much more serious
matter; hence, the large amount of screening for swine flu going on
here. Also interesting was what he described as China's two big
medical problems: "chronic diseases, like diabetes, and pregnancy."
At first I thought he meant unmarried or teenage pregnancy, but I then
realized he meant pregnancy in general. However, what I am not likely
to forget soon is what he said shortly before we parted ways. We were
exchanging names; after I told him I was named Bao Yueran (a
meaning-based translation for the given name and very loose
sound-based for the surname), I gave him my English (Tamil? Not
really clear if "Ashok" counts as English or Tamil or perhaps both)
name. He told me that when first received an English-speaking guest,
he decided on the English name "Sequoia." His rationale was that
"John, Joe, Sam, all those other names are so common that everyone has
them and no one remembers them. I wanted something that would stand
out." I think Sequoia does the trick for memorability; I doubt I'll
meet another anytime soon.