One of my best Taiwanese friends is named Q. At first I thought this was the English name he had picked for himself, because almost all Taiwanese people think it is necessary to use an English name when dealing with foreigners. This tends to have varying levels of success, starting at the mind-blowingly awesome "Playboy" and "Blaze," who my former roommate David had the honor of teaching, to the somewhat less inspired "Clement," who is currently terrorizing my classroom. So when Q introduced himself as "Q" a flurry of thoughts raced through my head. "Have I found Taiwan's only Star Trek fan?" "Why am I such a nerd?" "Is his knowledge of English so advanced that he has named himself after his own hairstyle? And if so what would his name be if he shaves it all off?" Then, unexpectedly, Q's friends started to call him "Da Q" or Big Q.
The thing is, QQ is the Taiwanese word for "chewy." Seriously. Instead of characters and strange, tone-based pronunciation, they just say "Q." As in, "These noodles are very Q." And so Q grabbed a hunk of his pony-tailed queue and explained that his hair is very Q, and so his friends all call him Big Q. I hope this leaves you as confused as it did me.
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