The Rise of Sen-Sen

I always wondered what it would be like to be called Jean-Claude for the rest of my life. You see, Jean-Claude was a French name that I picked in 6th grade that followed me throughout high school, albeit for only 40 minutes a day in French class. I selected it because it sounded like Jon and because in 6th grade, I thought Jean-Claude Van Damme was pretty fucking cool...actually I still do. But what if the name remained a part of me outside French Class and friends, classmates, and family called me Jean-Claude day in and day out? Well, I'd probably go Van Damme on all of them. So that was the dilemma I faced when coming up with a Chinese name. I wanted something that sounded cool, was easy to say for an English speaker, and meant something that actually fit my personality. Unfortunately, I put the decision in the hands of my trustworthy workmates, the cute front desk staff of Aston English School, who themselves were given English names that have followed them for years. The result: Sen-Sen.

At first, the name pissed me off...I felt like it was a pet name. The girls eased my worries expressing in broken English that they first were just going to call me Jon-Jon. Bruce explained that Jon-Jon was the nickname of JFK's son who died in an airplane crash so they immediately wanted to change my name. The girls came up with Sen-Sen, a variation of Jon-Jon and an appropriation of the last syllable of my first name--the way Chinese people say it: Jona"sen." So ok, now I'm Sen-Sen, but aren't all Chinese names supposed to mean something? Nope, just Sen-Sen. Later, that night however, I got a spotty but suffiicient answer: Sensei is the Japanese word for teacher and the Chinese word "Sen"--in some ancient dialect--meant "Wake up" For those of you who know how much I sleep, Sen-Sen or "Wake Up Teacher, Jon", is an apt name.

I think in the coming days I will pick a legitimate Chinese name, something with a little more oomph than Sen-Sen. But the name is growing on me. Every morning I walk in and one of the girls perks up saying "Good Morning Sen-Sen!" with a cute smile. And really, I think they could call me whatever the fuck they want.