I was not going to react to this, but since this is now becoming a very
public discussion, I feel compelled. Nothing in the qualifications of the
person involved as provided in Andy Way's email would necessarily make him
ineligible as far as I can see, and, moreover that is not the issue. I'm
sure he behaved improper in his response, but I think we have to be careful
in making this a vendetta against one person. I've had my share of abusive
behavior from NLP employers, but never felt the need to make those events
public.
As far is age goes, that remark sounds like age discrimination to me. But
maybe things are different in Europe nowadays, since I left.
Job van Zuijlen
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Christian Boitet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 11:05
To: "Andy Way" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]>
Cc: "Mosleh Al-Adaileh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "daoud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"Daoud Maher Daoud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Mt-list] Rogue student's answer (PhD application)
Dear Andy, 14/4/08
"Je compatis" with you, as it is always shocking to receive abusive
responses.
On top of that, the profile of that person and his age would not qulify
him for a PhD grant in MT anywhere (neither in CS nor in CL nor in
linguistics nor in translation).
I happen to know a few researchers in Jordan, but not his one.
I relay this to two of them, wo did good research in MT, for further
enquiring.
Best regards,
Xan
(Ch.Boitet)
At 10:00 +0100 14/04/08, Andy Way wrote:
Folks,
As you know, I've recently advertised for a number of PhD positions in
MT in our group at DCU. I'm pleased to say that all positions are now
filled.
Accordingly, on Friday morning last week, I contacted all unsuccessful
applicants informing them of my decision. This was the usual type of
message thanking them for their interest in the positions, and wishing
them well in their future academic careers.
I regret to say that I received an abusive response to this mail from
one applicant, and I think it is worth passing on his details in case he
applies for any other MT-related position.
His name is Ammar Hussein, using the email address [EMAIL PROTECTED],
and in his application to me, he stated the following:
I am a Jordanian citizen, 39 years old. I hold a master's degree in
computer science with a very good average and bachelor's degree with
excellent average. I wish to inquire if it is possible for students from
outside the European union to apply for the scholarships for PhD studies
in machine translation. I have several years of work experience in the
computer field as well as a couple as a translator. The work I undertook
included feeding machine translation software for a company called
Apptek (www.apptek.com). Needless to say I am interested in the work of
machine translation especially as pertaining to Arabic.
I wouldn't normally do this, but then again, I've never received such a
defamatory response to what was in my opinion just common courtesy. I
know that many other leading MT groups have more money than student
applicants, and it's important to make the community aware of such rogue
students for the common good.
Andy.
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Christian Boitet
(Pr. Universite' Joseph Fourier)
======= Notez svp /Please note ======= GETA --> GETALP ============
Groupe d'Etude pour la Traduction Automatique
et le Traitement Automatisé des Langues et de la Parole
G E T A L P
GETALP, LIG-campus, BP 53 (ex: GETA, CLIPS, IMAG-campus)
Tel: +33 (0)4 76 51 43 55 / 51 48 17 Fax: +33 (0)4 76 44 66 75
385, rue de la Bibliothe`que Mel: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
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