Do You Always Have to Use Your Academic Title?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
I received an official academic-related letter from the campus today, and I saw numerous, if not all, names with academic title prefixes and suffixes. This includes my name, “Bellamy, S.Sn”. Well, not exactly a complete version of my name, but I resent on using it. I never liked wearing my academic title in simply everything. To me, using academic titles on your name won’t guarantee that you’re even a qualified person on that field. To me, your brain matters, not your academic titles.
From my observation, most Indonesians have created their own specific uses for their given, if not bought, academic titles:
Just for Show
I’ve crossed path with a computer seller that adds a “B.Sc” behind his name on his business card. At this point, I really doubt that you even needed that if you, sorry, no offense, ended up as a computer seller in ITC Fatmawati.
“Gila Hormat”
I’m not so sure if there were an equivalent slang for that in English. But it’s easy to find an example for this kind. Politicians, governmental employees, and list goes on…
Dumbness Amplification
This is my favorite, and I’ll try to explain this with an example. If you are, let’s say, a Computer Science graduate from a certain university, given the “B.Sc” title, and you proudly printed that on your resumes, business cards, and everything else imaginable, but you don’t even know how to write a simple letter with Microsoft Word? Now that’s what I call an unqualified nitwit. Did you buy your title or something? Oh wait… Maybe you did.
Marriage Leverage
I’ve seen this numerous times on wedding invitations, academic titles storming on the sides of the soon-to-be-weds. Guys, it’s a marriage, you don’t exactly required to be a professor or an engineer to get married.
I’m not sure if there’s a valid and scientific research on this, but I think in the Western culture, people don’t use their academic titles on a daily basis. Of course, unless when you’re writing an academic paper or publication, or something that requires a legitimate clarification, then you might want to consider adding your PHD title, just for validity’s sake. But you won’t see any Prof. Dr. Ing. Barack Obama, BA, B.Sc, PHD, unlike what we often see with Indonesian politicians, for example.
So at this point I still can’t find a justified usage of our academic titles in almost anything. Simply put, it is just a symbol given to you as a university graduate as a token of your success in your studies, or to validate your qualifications on your writings. But unless your a sinful bragger, a “Gila Hormat” idiot, or some idiot who just bought a title, I don’t see the need that you have to write your full academic title every fucking time you need to write your name. To me, that is just low.
As for me, you won’t see me write my name as “Bellamy Benedetto Budiman, S.Sn” voluntarily in my business cards, resumes, CVs, wedding invitation, and just about everything else.
The funniest thing was they usually wrote all of their so-called titles. The academic rule actually just wrote your last title, unless they are two different fields. For example: John Doe, PhD; John Doe, M.Sc, MA (since both are Master degrees from different field).
Wrote down ALL of your title just showing how ignorant you are…
My friend: "Gila Hormat" means "Crazy Respect". Ha ha ha … actually it's crave for respect thing. We have many people with so many titles but no significant distinguish work of theirs present. Yes, indeed. To get married needs all title written otherwise the in-laws or parents "gak pulang modal" in English "capital is not going home". Ha ha ha … Most of the time, the title is longer than his name. Next time, we can them not by their name but by their title, ok friends.
Try to go visit Jl. Pembangunan 2 nearby on the left side before exit to Gajah Mada. There is a lawyer with 8 titles from the same field
, mostly. Take a picture and put it at Laughable stuff.
Menurut saya,pemakaian title dibelakang nama "GA PENTING!",udah ga zaman,itu jadul.Apalagi zaman sekarang title bisa dibeli asal punya uang,berapa banyak yg punya title honoris causa,yg cuma hadiah dan bukan dari hasil karyanya, you know lah siapa aja ya?
The important thing is "berkarya dengan hasil pemikirannya sendiri bukan menjiplak karya orang lain" Kadang2 ortu cuma fokusnya, yang penting anak gua musti ber"title",bangga kayanya anak ber"title", tapi nyatanya lulus kepaksa,maksa ke anak hrs ambil jurusan yg dia dulu pengen tp ga dpt.Akhirnya anak jadi MA, sebelum lulus kepaksa, you know what I mean MA> mahasiswa abadi. Akhirnya at the end ga
bisa berkarya dg baik, dulunya ga serius krn dibawah tekanan dan sering jiplak, yah gitulah!The important thing is : mereka berkarya sesuai yg mrk pilih dg penuh tg jwb, kalaupun bukan itu pasti Tuhan akan tempatkan ditempat lain sesuai dg. rencanaNya.
kalo buat nampang doang sih emang purely kampung (biasanya yg gitu2 kan beli ijazah), tp kalau buat karier masi debatable sih bel. misalnya buat guru, dosen, konsultan dokter, atau pengacara, itu emang perlu.
gue yakin 99% caleg beli ijazah.
Eh kasian dong jgn gt .. mereka tuh udah setengah mati biar dapet title .. mereka setengah mati cari duitnya buat beli ijazahnya maksud gue .. sayang kan ga dipake .. he he .. soalnya mahal .. kalau ga balik modal mereka pusing.
Ada jg yg udh bela2in ke luar negeri buat dapet B.Sc bukan dpt S.Kom misalnya .. malu katanya kalau belakangnya pake kata Sarjana, tp sampe sini ga ngerti apa2, yg mereka ngerti minta duit ke bokapnya buat buka usaha yg mereka pikir hebat and tahunya bangkrut tak jelas.
Tp lumayan kan udh pernah nampang di kartu nama waktu mereka meeting ama org2 .. next time mereka minta duit lagi and then bangkrut lagi .. gpp jg sih .. banyak duit kok bokapnya (hasil meras abis tenaga org) .. tinggal buka keran keluar deh duitnya .. duitnya udah kaya aqua aja.
Kasian yah bokapnya? (atau kasian ama org yg diperas tenaga oleh bapaknya hmmm … jadi bingung deh)
Setuju banget Roy!!! Gua juga ragu tuh sama anak2 yang lulus dari luar negeri. Ceritanya balik ke Indonesia langsung buka bisnis milliaran. Sirik gua! Sirik gua! Nah, gua ngaku daripada dibilang sirik mending bilang duluan. Yang bikin sirik jadi jengkel adalah dah gitu ngerusak industri bahkan gak mau bayar orang sepantasnya. Bagaimana kita bikin society professional yang memboikot usaha mereka bila tidak menggunakan kreatif lokal tetapi keren2an pake tenaga luar negeri sementara cari makannya dari professional lokal? Tapi susah juga sih ya, bapak2nya dah terlalu banyak duit jadi bangkrut juga gak apa2. Besok dikasih duit lagi mgk pikir ortunya daripada anak gua gak ada kesibukan lalu terlibat narkoba. Keliatannya memang dasar didikannya aja gak beres. Dimanja dan dilayani terus, sehingga begitu terjun ke masyarakat orang dilecehkan supaya terus layani mereka. Ortunya terlalu sibuk, yang satu sibuk peras orang, yang lain sibuk shopping di mall. Anak cukup dikasih duit lalu dilepasin.
cerita sinetron banget yah Drew … "Ortunya terlalu sibuk, yang satu sibuk peras orang, yang lain sibuk shopping di mall. Anak cukup dikasih duit lalu dilepasin." hi hi hi hi …
khan sering jadi "klien" kita yang gak suka bayar tapi GAYAnya bukan main.
@Andrew:
Well that happens most of the time, doesn't it? :D
Regarding titles in wedding invitations, gue pikir ini ada kaitannya sama kultur keluarga. Coba kita melihat dari perspektif orang tua si calon mempelai. Untuk orangtua yang 'konvensional' mencantumkan title bisa menjadi kebanggaan tersendiri buat mereka. Menyekolahkan anak itu butuh biaya besar, mungkin harus banting tulang agar anaknya bisa dapat title. Jadi bila orangtua insist mancantumkan title di undangan perkawinan, ya harus bisa dimaklumi lah. Kecuali si anak kuliahnya purely atas biaya sendiri.
Mungkin si anaknya sendiri nggak mau tapi masa sih cuma memenuhi permintaan orangtua yang bisa dibilang 'sepele' seperti itu nggak mau, setelah dibiayai kuliah bertahun2 dan tinggal di bawah atap rumah nyokap-bokapnya. ;)
IMHO.
Harry made his point about some parents had to work very hard to send their kids to school and earn better life. And the tribute for the parents from the kids is to put the titles along with their name. It's exceptional. What Bellamy has said related with most of …
Just wondering is it the Andrew Shu from South Hills United?