Hello Everyone. I appreciate you visiting the site and reading my blog; it’s good to see those pretty eyes again.
In writing my blog post, the hardest part for me would be coming up with a title. I always try to make it catchy and interesting so you guys will be intrigued and click on the link. I use almost like two days or more to think of a title for each post; in fact, as soon as I’m done posting a blog for the week, my mind immediately starts thinking about what I can name next week’s. Titles, subjects, headings—all these words are meant to define what we are trying to talk about or who we are as a person. It’s not until very recently that I found all this very funny. I thought about it really deeply and realized that, as human beings, titles are very important to us all, and I would be sharing different instances in my life of how titles matter to many people.
First of the titles, Ms., Miss., and Mr.; for me, I used mr. or mrs. for people much older than I am and what not depending on the situation I see myself in, but then I never took into account women who are not married; what do you address them as when using that title? I always thought you just used Mrs. or Miss and added the person’s name or surname, but it was upon getting to my job that I learned you use Ms. for spinsters and Mrs. for married women, and then I figured Miss for teens. Call me naive or whatever the point is, I learned, and now how did I know about this? My boss asked me to draft and email an email for her, so I did and addressed her as Mrs. instead of Ms., and that was when I was corrected and educated on the titles. Now the amusing part about this is that depending on who she is addressing, she would use either mrs. or ms., and whenever I see her do this, I wonder, “Are you bothered about people knowing that you’re not married?” And then I’m like, “What does it matter?” But I’m sure by now you will see that the title “mrs.” or “ms.” means something to her and matters to her, and not only her; I’m sure most women out there feel the same way.
The second scenario would be in job titles. In my opinion, the job title “personal assistant” is basically a housegirl job for me. I sound like my mother saying that, but when you actually look at it with a bit of honesty, that is actually what it is, except that you are probably not doing manual jobs like maybe washing dishes, cleaning the house, and what not. In some situations, I have seen where you are supervising the maids and all those who clean the house, making sure it’s done right and what not. But for the most part of the job, you are basically running errands for someone else. That’s just how I see the job; it’s not like there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s just my own opinion. Maybe it’s because I don’t actually like serving people as my mom says; she always says I love to be served instead.
Moving on to the job titles of maids, housegirls, gatemen, security, and mallams, I have met people with these job titles who would correct you and say, “I’m not a housegirl; I’m a maid or housekeeper; or I’m not a gateman; I’m a security.” Even the title “mallam,” which means “mr.” in Hausa, is taken as an insult to some people when you call them mallam. Personally, I prefer to use maid or security instead of the other titles just to avoid the clash of “please, I’m not a…” and “I am a…” Even now, how the word “mallam” became an insult to some people still shocks me, especially when I found out the meaning.
Now the most touchy of them all is friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancée, fiancé, husband and wife, side chick, friends with benefits, and what not; these are the titles I know are important to almost everyone, myself included. We all want to define relationships with titles, so no one gets it twisted. Even friendships are defined, whether you’re a close friend, acquaintance, or best friend. We all try to define it one way or the other; even your colleague might not be your friend. I missed out collegue as well while listing.
Lastly what your known by or what your called. It’s also a very important example. Take myself for instance; my full name is Chinagozim but everyone calls me Cheenaa. I shortened my name because I got tired of always correcting people on the pronunciation or saying my name twice so the person could get it. Now, when I hear someone call my full name, I know you have to be a family member or a very close friend, because most people call me Cheenaa. Also, I don’t like being called “chi chi” or “chi.” I am not a big fan of that short form. So I prefer you just stick with “cheenaa,” which is very easy to pronounce. You also see people preferring to go by their English name instead of their native name; maybe if I had an English name, I would have done that instead of shortening my name; and yes, you didn’t read it wrong, my mother didn’t give me an English name; I have three beautiful Igbo names. So I’m sure this can relate to almost all of us concerning our names and what we prefer to be called.
I’m sure you get my point now on how titles and names are very important to all humans, even movie titles, song titles, novel titles, brand names, and lots more. We all care about titles in one way or another, and with that, I would call it a wrap.
Before I go, I would just like to point out that this is my first blog that is this long. I am always very conscious of not writing too much so I don’t get you, my readers, bored or lose your attention. But I hope you guys enjoy this post. Thank you for reading if you made it to this point.
It’s China not Chinese ❤️🖤💜
