Doctor shmockter

It’s always been like this – Arab professors INSIST that we call them Doctor. (Not sir, not Ma’am, Not Mr. or Mrs/ or even Ms., it has to be DOCTOR). It always bothered me when a girl goes “But sir, ….” And the professor has to interrupt, not caring what her question was, and says “Not sir, DOCTOR.”. Like who the hell cares. We all know you’re a doctor. That’s why you’re teaching us. Why can’t you just focus on the question? In any case, students usually call their professors “doctor”, but in mid-sentence, or in a conversation, it seems easier to say ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’, why can't they just accept that?.

On the other hand, every Non-Arab professor I have met actually wanted us to call them by their first names. All of them would say “Call me whatever you like.” And it was kind of uplifting, not worrying too much about labels. If you called them Doctor, sir, Mr., miss, Mrs.,or used their first name, they were cool with it. And I always complained and nitpicked at this fact– why do the Arab professors (especially the women) insist on us calling them Doctor, but non-Arab ones are fine with anything. What is this need to put a distance between us and them? And was there a reason that only the Arab professors persist with this or was it just a coincidence that the ones who insisted on it were Arab?

In any case, for the first time in my life, a few days ago I met an Arab professor who insisted on us calling him by his first name. On our first class with him he said: “Call me anything you like, Doctor, Sir, A**** (his first name), Madam (we all chuckled), whatever, I don’t care. Just as long as you do raise your hand in class and call me.” And I thought what! Maybe it’s not that they’re Arabs, maybe it’s just that the ones I met who insisted on name tags were coincidentally Arabs! And I was happy – it’s got nothing to do with culture, it’s got everything to do with personality and character.

Of course, my cheerfulness didn’t last when I found out that our unusual Arab professor has actually spent more than 30 years or so in the West, teaching non-Arab students, and has lived most of his life in non-Arab countries. Basically his personality/character was shaped somewhere out of the Arab world.

Well thanks. Now I know that it must have something to do with society. And I hope to be the first Arab professor ever born and raised in and Arab world who insists on her students calling her whatever in the world they want, just as long as they raise their hands in class and call me.