Sunday, November 22, 2009

Lost in Translation: Recommendation Letter Edition


An enraged Chinese professor posted a recommendation letter from a UIUC faculty five years ago. Professor Liu of Hunan University was encouraged on kind words on the letter, and offered a job applicant the position. However, the guy failed miserably as both an instructor and a researcher.

While regretted of making the decision five years ago, Professor Liu fiercely blamed the applicant's adviser who provided a recommendation letter upon request from Hunan University. Professor Liu posted a scan copy of the original letter, and underlined words that allegedly had misled him.

However, this may be a case of 'lost in translation' (between eastern and western cultures). Had Professor spent more time on English 099 (pre-college level), he would be able to smell the clues. It's so stale that he did not even need to sniff. Actually the simple fact that the adviser did not voluntarily provide a letter was an obvious sign that was hard to miss. Not to say the wordings were so obvious that one should kick himself for failed to read the meaning/mood of the letter.

Red lines were marked by Professor Liu to illustrate how the letter was misleading, but on the contrary, they were crystal clear and unumbiguous in the tone:
1) '..has a perfect academic record (straight A)..
No other letter for a doctoral recipient would emphasize on GPA, not from a research lab for sure.
2) '..contribution to the understanding ... led to three publications'. Three publications were not impressive at all for a physics major, not to say the adviser seemed to be reluctant to mention the title and journal of them.
3) '..is of importance..' This is probably the weakest way of praising the work might be of any significance.
4) The letter is simply too short.

In the conclusion paragraph of the letter, the adviser was straight forward as he could.
1) '.. is an intelligent and hard-working researcher.' This is an alert by itself since it was as far as the adviser was willing to go. Plus, it's the nice puddings to balance what he was going to say next:
2) '.. strong personality..'. Did you read this?
3) '..skill that will.., once he devote to it'. In other words, nothing had been observed, yet.
4) 'I 'think' he will be..' He was so unsure...

Professor Liu discussed in length on the returnee's job performance at Hunan University. Then Professor Liu went beyond his way to make comments on the returnee's relationship with students, females, and, his own father. It goes into details such as the guy forgot to zip after going to bathroom. It also cited tension between Professor Liu and the returnee throughout five years. Professor Liu credited himself on how he had helped the guy to get the job, bypassing all normal hiring procedures (no interview was conducted), then the associate professorship promotion, and finally transferring to another college. If the returnee was as terrible as Professor Liu described in the blog, to crash and burn in the classroom as early as his first semester, who did Professor Liu got him promoted to Associate Professor? If he was such as horrible person, why would Professor Liu helped him transfer to another college, after Hunan University wouldn't renew the contract? Now, why would Professor Liu disclose the ordeal in detail after it seems the guy would have nothing to do with him?

Why?

There is much left begging for an answer. Perhaps those again lost in the translation. Only this time, it was lost in the translation of Professor Liu's own mind.


学者刘全慧 发表于2009-11-21 22:01:19

拾穗记
一封UIUC教授对他学生在国内求职的推荐信

我这辈子最大的一个失败,是向学校推荐了一位不成器的海归。尽管过去了很多年,想起来还有点心有余悸。这位老兄在美国多年,博士毕业后在美国已经有了正式工作,不过拿的还是中国护照。由于“911”的缘故,一时回不到美国去了。后来我们才知道,他在申请湖南大学职位之前,已经在中国科学院两个研究所和另外一所大学工作过。

这位海归拥有一般人根本无法比拟的显赫出生和学术背景。简历中从中学、大学、研究生经历中一系列令人眩晕的记录,连我这位老江湖也无法自持。例如,他拿的是UIUC凝聚态物理博士学位。凝聚态物理是物理学中规模最大、影响最广的二级学科,而UIUC的凝聚态物理专业一直雄居全美第一,当然是国际上物理学研究的重镇。看到他的求职材料,我当时急切和兴奋的心情,只有“跣足而出”可以形容。如果不能及时引进,简直天诛地灭。仅仅靠数个电话,我就决定向学校全力推荐。要求学校所有的正常手续都从简,连正常的见面、试讲等必要的程序也免了。我和他的一位大学同学交流过,他告诉我,他的同学中有一群天才;不过若说谁可能会获得诺贝尔物理学奖的话,则非这位老兄莫属。他的导师对他的推荐,也算是上好了。如果和他讨论物理,很容易发现他的基础非常扎实,对物理学研究价值的把握也很有水平。

不过这位老兄在湖南大学的学术记录实在不光彩。

在进入湖南大学之后的第一个学期,他开设了《电磁学》一课。上课时经常将“我们美国、你们中国”等挂在嘴边,正经的课程内容讲授不多,有些个人习惯(例如上下拉裤子的拉链)也很不雅,......,学生非常反感,坚决要求更换。由于他是我极力引进的“红人”,系里也不敢轻易决定。我引进他之后就出国云游去了,系领导、学生等打电话发电邮追着我要我表态。经过核实后,我的震惊和失望无法形容。在接下来的五年内,我和他的交往更是一场噩梦。除了要我负担他的一些正常办公开支外,他不断问我借钱甚至直接要钱。理由很简单,是我引进他的,而他的工资不够花。要评职称,又不填表,一定要我帮他填好。我拼全力给他争取来的副教授职称后,他还根本不看在眼里。更要命的是,他没有做过认真的研究,唯一的论文就是把在博士论文的一些已经发表在国外的结果写得详细一点,然后发表在《物理学报》上。事实证明,我向学校举荐的是一位既不会上课,又不会做研究的“杰出人才”,经受的压力可想而知。最不可思议的是他目无尊长,在他口中,就连他老父亲都是“那小子”、“某某(他兄弟的名字)的父亲”,“我没有责任赡养他”等。

五年任期将满之际,学校决定不续聘。尽管学校保留了追讨所付出的住房补贴、安家费、科研启动费的权利,估计也会没有下文。尽管对他极度失望,我还是积极帮他找出路。我建议他去一所民办学校高就,并调离成功。民办高校当然不会研究物理,他也无意在物理行当中混下去,顺便彻底改行。听说新东家给的待遇不错。衷心希望他能从此洗心革面,从新做人,真正成为一位对社会和家庭有价值的人。

他博士论文导师给他湖南大学的推荐信如下。这封推荐信不是这位老兄求他老板所写,是湖南大学官方直接向UIUC了解情况时他导师的回复。

本文引用地址: http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=272838


Based on the information in the blog (the returnee republished his dissertation on the ACTA Physica AINICA), the seagull was able to identify the alleged 'unqualified' returnee to be Dr. Liang-Xin Li. Li was an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physics of Hunan University.

Li, Liang-Xin and Hu, Yong-Hua, 2004. Intersubband and intraband transitions of self-assembled quantum wires for the infrared detectors. ACTA Physica Sinica, p848-856, 54, 2.

Based on above information, the author of the recommendation letter is likely Dr. Yia-Chung Chang, a distinguished research fellow and director of the Research Center for Applied Sciences at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Dr. Chang was professor of Physics at UICU from 1991-2008.

1 comment:

mfcappie said...

After reading that letter, I don't even think it is by a native speaker of English. Why does it have a misprint (the two s's together)? "He devote to it?" That's not proper English. Why isn't it on university letterhead? A real recommendation letter would be.

I'd guess it was written by the job-seeker himself.