Is this how you feel about all jewelery? At least a watch serves an actual function as opposed to an expensive ring or necklace. Why do you single out watches here? The only “jewelery” that some of us (mostly guys) wear every day is our watch and our wedding band. Why not have a nice one?
I think of expats as drunks if they’re British and pedophiles if they’re American.
I think of them all as English teachers.
I’d say not pretentious, but rather a bit idiotic. Why would anyone want to pay money for the pleasure of walking around advertising a commercial company?
The husband of an old colleague of mine claimed that the only reason he became a D.Tech. was to be able to do just that - or rather he would stand up and announce “I am a doctor. I’m a doctor of technology”. I have a theory that he had his tongue planted in his cheek.
Not mutually exclusive. 
I don’t know; maybe it was my upbringing as a poor black child.
I just thought of another uber-pretentious thing (I haven’t figured out how to do the dots over the “u” yet on my Mac keyboard) - all modern musicians. I like watching new bands on David Letterman and Craig Ferguson for the music, but I can hardly stand to look at all these wankers (latest example - Everest on Craig Ferguson - I actually like this song, but I want to hose them all off and give them a shave and a haircut).
I have a handful of friends who refuse to use Facebook. They’re not pretentious; they’re paranoid.
If a name has a standard pronunciation in English, it’s pretentious to force people to use a non-English pronunciation.
Uhhh … so just having a preference is pretentious? I eat sushi because it’s the best tasting stuff in the world.
Well, I’m a NYer born and bred (which some might claim means I use non-English pronunciations), and I’d say that “Ahn-DRAY-uh” is the more common pronunciation that I’ve encountered.
nm
A person’s name includes its pronunciation, not just its spelling. In some cases, the pronunciation may be more important than the spelling. I can’t imagine how any person able to speak could be anything but the final arbiter on what pronunciation of their own name is correct.
Naturally, it is pretentious to insist that anyone answer to any name but their own properly pronounced. 
Bullshit. Every person has a pronunciation that they use for their own name; that pronunciation is the only correct or acceptable pronunciation for their name. It’s one thing to be rude about insisting on that pronunciation; but it is entirely reasonable to insist
[QUOTE=Cat Whisperer]
(I haven’t figured out how to do the dots over the “u” yet on my Mac keyboard)
[/QUOTE]
Type “option + u”, then type whatever vowel you want to have the umlaut. “option + something” does all the special characters (accents are mostly over the vowels). Experiment. 
Bullshit right back at you. It’s pretentious, presumptuous, and oppressive to try to exercise domination over other people’s accents. And a name is simply a word like any other. If there’s a common pronunciation for it, that common pronunciation is never wrong.
I also believe that if a name has a correct pronunciation in its original language, then that is also never wrong. If you yourself pronounce your name in a third way, then your name has at least three “correct” pronunciations. It’s overly self-aggrandizing to assert some kind of veto power over the world’s pronunciations/accents/speech with respect to your name.
In any case, you’ll be dead soon, and if anyone even remembers your name, they’ll pronounce it how they want. Do you think people like Shakespeare or Columbus are spinning in their graves, because most people don’t pronounce their names like they did?
Christopher Columbus wouldn’t even know you were talking about him. Columbus is neither Italian or Spanish (neither is Christopher). And if he is spinning in his grave, it is the least discomfort he deserves.
That’s my point.
Perhaps, but it would be his right (and not pretentious) for him to expect his given name to be pronounced correctly.
And that still doesn’t make “An-DRAY-uh” an affectation or pretentious. As many have said, that is how they would pronounce the name by default.
I went to college in North Carolina. There was a girl named Andrea from New York in my classes. The NC pronunciation is “An-dree-ah”. She preferred “Ahn-dree-ah.” We went with her pronunciation because preferred it. That’s what polite people do.
Hey - it works! I knew to do that for the é thing - why didn’t I try it for the ü? Thanks, mang.
The problem is that Andrea and Andrea are not the same name with two different possible pronunciations. They’re two different names with different pronunciations but because English has more vowel and consonant sounds than it has symbols for, we have to make do. But telling someone who pronounces their name Ahn-dree-uh that she is wrong and it should be pronounced An-dray-ah or whatever the argument is is as silly as telling someone named Tad their name is actually pronounced Ted.
Here’s one for ya. When is being different - just for the sake of it - pretentious?
Always? Sometimes? Depends?
I’m right there with you on the whole “sushi is delicious” thing, but in Crafter_Man’s defense, I’ve also run into more than a few self-proclaimed (the first tell-tale of somene who’s pretentious) “sushi experts.”
And I think, “Dude/dudette, it’s fish and rice; do us all a favor: talk less, and mind your own !@#$%& business. If you want me to listen to you hold forth on sushi, or dictate how I eat it, then pick up my check.”