Monday 4 April 2016

Not the useful kind...

Recently, I was mentioning to my mother-in-law that I stopped using the title doctor in my correspondence with estate agents, because they believe I am a medical doctor and thus think I make a lot of money and that always disappoint them when they discover that I am a doctor in literature. They feel cheated and I fear it could cause me prejudice, as they say. My mother-in-law told me a joke she heard from a friend: "I'm a doctor, just not the useful kind." This is cruel, self-deprecating, yet very true. It kind of sucks, because I want my studies to be recognized, even if I no longer work in academia or even in my field of expertise. So yes, I'm a doctor, just not the useful kind. And that is a new great unknown line.

5 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

You could leave off the "doctor" and just put "Ph.D" behind your name or whatever the appropriate letters are.

PJ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I have known a few useless medical doctors lol,,
you earned that title of "doctor of literature" ,
all the years of study and work,
wear it with pride,,

Anonymous said...

Ce qui est curieux, ce que nous utilisons ce titre professoral dans le monde anglophone... mais pas du tout dans le monde francophone. Et pour tout dire, ça me fait toujours étrange lorsque quelqu'un me présente comme étant Dr. P.

Guillaume said...

Thank you all for commenting. And the kind words.