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| Apartment blocks at the border between the district Schwachhausen and the Hulsberg quarter
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I often bike around a part of the Bremen district Schwachhausen, where are a lot of large townhouses and sprawling urban villas. Many affluent families live there. Riding my bike I now and then say 'Hello doctor' or 'Good day professor' to a well-dressed lady or a well-clad gentleman whom I totally don't know. I mostly raise a friendly smile, a gracious nod or (rarely) frosty contempt, but pretty much never any contradiction.
I sometimes also continue this social field experiment, when, after leaving that district, I get to an area, where bare apartment blocks predominate. Chance sometimes brings it about that, in a course of several days, I say 'Hello' to the same person in this way. But, in such a case, I recently met with strong opposition. A simply dressed man with graying hair and beard shouted back with a somewhat harsh Slav accent 'You don't know me. I am not a doctor.'
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I stopped and asked him 'How should I adress you, perhaps as an engineer? After a very short momnent of shock he replied, already less angrily 'It's true, I am an engineer, but it's enough, when you say 'Hello' or ride past without saying 'Hello'. The fact, that I am an engineer, is only important for my professional status. But also at work you needn't adress me as an engineer. It's enough, when my business card says it.
After a brief respite, I said 'Well, I am Mr. Frey.' 'I am Mr. S.' my counterpart replied. A little bit displeasure flared on his face for a moment again and he continued to talk to me saying 'But you needn't to address me at all and certainly not as 'doctor'. However, that's also a little bit derision. 'No,' I countered him 'If I hadn't done it, you would never have told me something about humility.' A brief smile lit up his face 'Humility is the most important thing at all.'
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Please also read -
Charlie Dittmeier's report on Sambath, a young man who survived the Pol Pot regime and then fled to the United States, returned to his birth country as a new PhD in biology. The report is dated 5 September 2001. The link leads to the latest entry of the diary. Please scroll down..
Cats Talk (49)
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Next issue 'The Daily Groove'
Friday, May 13 2011.
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We would like to point out that we translated articles from German into English for the purpose of service. We would like to make it clear that the German translations are deciding, because the articles are directed to users who live in Germany.
Wir möchten darauf hinweisen, dass wir zu Servicezwecken englische Übersetzungen vorgenommen haben. Klarstellen möchten wir, dass maßgeblich die deutsche Übersetzung ist. Grund dessen ist, dass wir uns an in Deutschland ansässige Nutzer wenden.
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