A friend writes: “As a young child one of my fondest memories was sitting with my dad while he read your dad’s paper. I remember trying to practice my Vietnamese by reading the paper out loud and it made my parents so happy.”
In Vietnam, doctorates declare their honorific to fulfill a social expectation. In more collectivist cultures, a person’s education is the result of a community’s shared contributions and, in turn, that degree honors the whole community. In America, my choice changes depending on the context.