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Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

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Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#61

Post by yrgulation »

rmind wrote: post #9

I have to say "Eastern European" is a quite poor and unhelpful generalization nowadays. It is ethnically and linguistically diverse: Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric, Romance (Romania) as well as Albanian and Hellenic. It is religiously diverse: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim and even the bastions of irreligion/atheism (Czechia and Estonia). There are significant cultural differences, especially comparing the more…

You just made some people’s heads pop off. Eastern Europe being diverse? High income economies? Some folks are stuck in little bubbles where they think of east europe as a weak backwards region. Until a war breaks out and half the world goes hungry, western europe scrambles without energy and some countries shiver at the thought of nuclear fallout. For better or worse east europeans should stick their heads up a bit more often.

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#62

Post by [deleted] »

nottorp wrote: post #47
wirrbel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A common reaction is: It cannot all be positive. Or, as a colleague of mine put it: "When I first interacted with americans, they were smiling so much I suspected they were trying to trick me in some way".

As an Eastern European, those permanent Hollywood smiles where they bare their teeth make me think of a dog threatening me :)

[deleted]

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#65

Post by [deleted] »

bitL wrote: post #29
dontlaugh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s tragic so many of us have had to leave after 89. And I completely agree with you that this trend must be fought. However, I also think helping students have better lives is good overall. Many of us come back later. Perhaps if in the future there is a political change back towards worker power, many more of us will come back. And we’ll have useful skills honed in the meantime.

So your students in some provincial eastern European university can barely get a C on an exam, trashing their GPAs in the process, closing life-long opportunities, because of the "only the professor deserves an A" attitude that then translates to reference letters and everywhere else. The same student then gets a 3.8+ GPA at a top 10 US university with glaring reviews of their work and 10x higher compensation the mom…

[deleted]

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#66

Post by petre »

dontlaugh wrote: post #8
paganel wrote: post #4

I appreciate the author of the article wanting to do good, but the last thing we need here in Eastern Europe is even more brain drain.

It’s tragic so many of us have had to leave after 89. And I completely agree with you that this trend must be fought. However, I also think helping students have better lives is good overall. Many of us come back later. Perhaps if in the future there is a political change back towards worker power, many more of us will come back. And we’ll have useful skills honed in the meantime.

Political change? You're too optimistic. And about worker power, Eastern Europe is going to have a South Asia workforce soon. I met a couple of nice Bangladeshis this weekend. They are working in my country. I choose to welcome them, as they probably get enough mistreatment and xenophobia at work.

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#67

Post by petre »

bitL wrote: post #29
dontlaugh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s tragic so many of us have had to leave after 89. And I completely agree with you that this trend must be fought. However, I also think helping students have better lives is good overall. Many of us come back later. Perhaps if in the future there is a political change back towards worker power, many more of us will come back. And we’ll have useful skills honed in the meantime.

So your students in some provincial eastern European university can barely get a C on an exam, trashing their GPAs in the process, closing life-long opportunities, because of the "only the professor deserves an A" attitude that then translates to reference letters and everywhere else. The same student then gets a 3.8+ GPA at a top 10 US university with glaring reviews of their work and 10x higher compensation the mom…

Not really, they get good results in school but so so domestic employment opportunities. Even in IT we're basically a country where work is being outsourced. Nobody is going to stop the brain drain, unless Eastern Europe economies grow to become G7 members, which is highly unlikely.

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#68

Post by [deleted] »

paganel wrote: post #18
pastage wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just described how to get brain drain, by limiting the development of your students you will for ever be stuck with no outside influences. Students will often come home even if they get education abroad.

> Students will often come home even if they get education abroad. Nope, that "often" part is false, at least when it comes to most of Eastern Europe (maybe in other parts of the world things are different).

[deleted]

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#69

Post by petre »

pastage wrote: post #7
paganel wrote: post #4

I appreciate the author of the article wanting to do good, but the last thing we need here in Eastern Europe is even more brain drain.

You just described how to get brain drain, by limiting the development of your students you will for ever be stuck with no outside influences. Students will often come home even if they get education abroad.

After you invest in a good education abroad, you are definitely not going back home to put it to waste working for cronies or doing 'crisis management'. You're only going back home if you're outsourcing work from developed countries, competing on a new market with less players or getting prosecutor's office position and an opportunity to lock up some of the old boys.

Re: Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters

#70

Post by dontlaugh »

petre wrote: post #66
dontlaugh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s tragic so many of us have had to leave after 89. And I completely agree with you that this trend must be fought. However, I also think helping students have better lives is good overall. Many of us come back later. Perhaps if in the future there is a political change back towards worker power, many more of us will come back. And we’ll have useful skills honed in the meantime.

Political change? You're too optimistic. And about worker power, Eastern Europe is going to have a South Asia workforce soon. I met a couple of nice Bangladeshis this weekend. They are working in my country. I choose to welcome them, as they probably get enough mistreatment and xenophobia at work.

Political change will happen as the global crisis intensifies. Whether it’ll be towards fascism or towards socialism, we’ll see.

All workers can seize the means of production together, Eastern European and South Asian. It has happened before all over Eastern Europe, it can happen again.

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