And yet, folks continue to buy into this BS

Yup, I remember a school principal insist on being called “Doctor”.

I insist on being called “Bachelor”

For obvious reasons.

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Obvious? You are an alumnus of “The Bachelor”? :thinking:

My experience is the opposite. The only professional I know, outside of the medical field, who has insisted on this was an engineer.

No, it’s because I hold a Bachelor’s degree in underwater basketweaving.

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Does that make you a basket case? :rofl:

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Takes all kinds! I’m an engineer as well; no doctorate though. Even if I did have one, I would not insist on being addressed as “Doctor”; I don’t take myself that seriously!

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I’m in a field where there are a lot of PhDs. So I get called Doctor a lot, even though I don’t have a doctorate. People just err on the side of caution.

Funny story: I worked four years in a hospital, but never got called “Doctor” once. Then I changed jobs and moved to telecom. Down the road from where I worked was this great French restaurant where I had a lot of business and personal lunches as it was reasonably priced, and French is my preferred cuisine. The story was that the chef/owner (from France) used to work at the American Embassy and got tired of making burgers for the ambassador’s kids, so he opened the restaurant.

In any case, the hostess at the restaurant for some reason thought I was a doctor, and addressed me as such; I tried but never managed to correct her. It ensured that I always got a table even when they were busy, so I stopped trying.

10 years or so later the owner retired and the restaurant was replaced by an Indian buffet restaurant, where everything, even what was identified as “sweet mango pickle”, was hot. I went there once, and never again.

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in Germany any PhD rates a “Herr Doktor . . .” and his wife “Frau Doktor . . .”

Nobody under the age of 70.

Is said that PHD stands for “piled higher and deeper”.

My wife, the PhD, uses “Doctor” every chance she gets, including on her plane tickets. She says she earned that title after all those years and heartache in grad school (which I can attest to).

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Thank you. I don’t get the hostility (or rather, I have thoughts but they are ill-formed and based in less than flattering stereotypes about American anti-intellectualism).

A PhD confers the title of Doctor (which academics use in the UK until they achieve the status of “Professor”) and it involves a lot of work (if awarded by an accredited institution). There’s a lot of sacrifice in that pursuit and it’s not disingenuous to recognise; we’re not trying to pass for medical doctors.

As for me, I use mine professionally mostly, and that involves when travelling for work. For leisure and other personal reasons, I’m less fussed.

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Yeah, I’ve been in Germany fairly recently for work reasons (academic) and haven’t encountered that with my colleagues.

I’m there every summer for several months. Nobody under the age of 70 would call a young woman ‘Fräulein’ anymore, either - but they certainly still did in the 1990s.

My PIC has a PhD and can’t technically call himself a doctor in Germany, but he’s considered a “Professor” over there. #andereländeranderesitten :wink:

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What is the correct term for young woman in Germany nowadays?

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Frau, as in woman. No diminutive necessary. After all, nobody’s ever called a young man “Herrlein.”

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Any time someone called me “Herrlein”, I would correct them: “Herrlich.”

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:joy: lol!