MikeLigalig.com

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SOCIAL TITLES (such as Ph. D, EdD) Worth Reading po...just read.

I was inside Gaisano Toril’s department store when a person, obviously not looking where he was going, suddenly bumped me by accident. I was also in a bit of haste and did not see where he was going because I did not want to miss the movie scheduled at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Me: Hala ka, Sir! Sorry.

Siya: Don't call me, Sir. I am a lawyer. Call me Attorney.

Me: I will not call you "attorney" because I am not your client. Besides, "sir" is still a very high form of respect.

Why is it that Filipinos are so fond of social titles? Just because they worked hard for the title and think not everyone can do what they do?

It really amuses me to see a name of a person with prefix and suffixes on the name.

DR. JUAN DELA CRUZ, EdD
ENGR. JUAN DELA CRUZ, MME

When you have the prefix, a suffix may not be placed and when you have the suffix, a prefix may not also be placed.

JUAN DELA CRUZ, MAED

As a general rule, we only write our TERMINAL DEGREES. If that's not a terminal degree, then do not place it. Unfortunately, a great number of people who possess certain terminal degrees believe wholeheartedly that they belong to a higher class -- a class of people who hold greater professional, personal and overall human value than others. I know so many people.

This is a high and might form of arrogance and superiority. Regrettably, it has been going on for millennia.

From my previous employment, people write

JUAN DELA CRUZ, BSN

Is BSN even a title? I think no. The RN is!

I also have another question in mind. What is with the USRN as a suffix to one's name? Is it being able to practice nursing in the United States? I think each state has different state board examination, which I think cannot really make you place the title at the end of your name. Some would write

JUAN DELA CRUZ, RN, USRN-TX, USRN-CA

Great minds take many forms and brilliance can be camouflaged. Creative geniuses do not get various titles such as  "doctor" and "attorney" but they get through life just fine. It is the narcissistic traits that are more difficult to camouflage.

In one of my classes in the graduate studies, I happen to have a British teacher named John. He prefers to be called by his first name.

Students: Hi, Sir.
John: Don't call me, "Sir." I am not a knight.

I remember my teacher way back in post graduate as Dr. Dela Cruz. During our first day of class, she doesn’t want to be addressed as “doctor.” She quips, “It is easy to get a doctorate degree in Math but to get married? Ang hirap makahanap ng asawa given my age. Please call me Mrs. Padilla.”

Others would like to be called "doctors" who are graduates of Doctor of Philosophy for they spent their damn years at a university. If you spent a lot of years in a university just to be called doctor, then you are in the wrong profession.

There are medicines for such an obsession.

Each time I travel abroad, I never tick the "Doctor" title because I did not graduate from a medical field. Whenever there are emergencies on the plane, watch all the PhDs duck for cover if they shout, "Any doctors on board this plane?"

As a teacher and technical writer in higher education, I use credentials in bylines (PhD, EdD, MD, JD, et. al.) but in biographies and speeches, I consistently use their last name or fist name without honorific specifically to avoid this sort of outrage.

I even had a colleague before who is so obsessed with social titles. He just earned his nine units in his post-graduate studies and each time he writes his name, it certainly looked like this:

JUAN DELA CRUZ, PhD-9units

I think this person needs ego adjustment and just need to get over themselves.

The hard reality is that the term doctor is usually reserved for an MD or those who are in the medical field. Sometimes, only other teachers and students can call a teacher with an advanced degree a doctor WHEN THEY ARE IN THE RESEARCH ARENA OR INSIDE THE CAMPUS.

Just let it go, feed the soul, and starve the ego!

Being addressed as Mister, Miss, Madam, or Sir does not make you less of a person. If it is so important to you to be called by your title, stamp it on your forehead.

Even the President of the Philippines can be addressed as Mister, Miss, Madam, or Sir. If I addressed you as "Doctor" or whatever title you have, it is because I just hired you.

However, there is another social title that gets into my nerves -- the pretentious showbiz titles like King of Talk, Concert King, RnB Princess, Divine Diva and the dumbest of them all, Amir of Rap. #pusangina

Adding up would be Queen of Social Media, Horror Princess, Queen of Horror, Dubsmash Queen. How did you fucktards come up with these titles, like wtf?

I know that these are not really titles but branding by networks to differentiate "artists" from others. Others want to be called artists just because they can sing. Haller!

I suspect this has to do with our colonial past when well-to-do ilustrados (i.e., recall those parvenus in the Noli Mi Tangere) tried to imitate the Spaniards but only one family held a noble title of Lord conferred by the King of Spain until the end of the colonial era.

Of course, the rich conferring themselves titles such as Don and Doña before we had several decades of Hollywood. Even the showbiz have seen itself as virtual royalty that their promoters and PR managers began conferring titles upon their charges so as to hype them up such as Marian and Dong: The Royal Wedding.

Basta... To sum this up, a "Sir" or "Madam" as an address is still the highest form of respect and it will not make you less of a person if you are not addressed as attorney, doctor, engineer, captain, or what!

Seriously, when you're six feet below the ground, you are just

JUAN DELA CRUZ, RIP

PS: whenever i see PhD, it makes me think it is “Pubic Hair-Doer” and EdD is “E-Duot Duot.” don’t get me wrong with this. this is just for fun. if you perceive it differently, wala na koy mabuhat.

I have nothing against social titles. Please use them appropriately.

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