Letter of Recommendation from a non-English speaker? Forum

[enoca]

I have been working for the last couple years out in the-middle-of-nowhere, rural Thailand. My direct superiors (and a few others at the school where I teach) have functional day-to-day English, but no one has the adequate language skills to compose a professional LOR. I think my boss would write pretty helpful letters if she could, but... it doesn't seem feasible.

I originally applied to some schools back in 2011-2012 (changed my mind, got a better LSAT score, and moved overseas), and so I have two LOR on file already: 1) from a college professor; 2) from the CEO of the engineering firm where I worked for 3 years after graduating.

So, I have a whole bunch of questions: How big of a deal are old LOR? Can I still use the two old ones? Should I just resubmit the old ones and explain the current work history in the PS? Should I try and arrange some kind of translation service? Is that even allowed? Is it a problem is no one is opining on the work I've done the past couple years?

Any advice would be welcomed.

[BillsFan9907]

I am also interested in this.

[Ti Malice]

How big of a deal are old LOR? Can I still use the two old ones?

It's not a problem to use the older LORs. If you're really concerned about how this would appear, you can get your recommenders to resubmit their letters with new dates, but this is really not necessary. People often get recommenders to write and submit letters while their memories are fresh and then apply in a subsequent cycle.

Should I just resubmit the old ones and explain the current work history in the PS?

"Explain" your work history in your resume. If some experience related to your current work could illuminate something meaningful about you in a personal story, feel free to integrate it into the PS. But it's not necessary to mention your current (or previous) work in your PS at all. Whatever you do, do not turn your PS into a resume dump by using it to "explain" or describe your current or previous work.

Is it a problem is no one is opining on the work I've done the past couple years?

No, it isn't.

You don't need letters from employers at all. To the extent that adcomms care about LORs (and outside of a few T14 schools, they do not), they want to read letters from professors who have evaluated your academic work. Standard employer LORs full of blandly positive statements are not useful. An employer LOR needs to be pretty compelling to be worth including, and even then it should only be included in addition to two academic LORs, if at all possible.

On that point, was the CEO of your engineering firm your direct supervisor? If not, his/her letter will almost certainly be of no value. The recommender's title/position should not be your focus.

Should I try and arrange some kind of translation service? Is that even allowed?

You can use a professional translation service, but only take on the hassle and expense if you think that your current supervisor will, with reference to specific events, meaningfully shed light on some aspect of your character not evident in the rest of your application -- and even then only if you're going to apply to one of the very few schools where LORs matter. If the letter is just going to describe you as a "hard worker" who "cares about his/her students" and "works well with his/her colleagues" and so forth, then definitely do not bother.

[enoca]

Alright, cool. Thanks for the advice; it makes me feel a bit more at ease.

The CEO was the person who recruited me to the firm. I didn't have a direct supervisor, but I worked very closely with him on a number of long term projects, and he knows me quite well. I've been out of school for 6 years now, and from reading school websites, after that amount of time they mostly seemed to indicate an employer letter is acceptable (if not ideal) as a second letter. I wasn't particularly close with many of my professors to begin with, so I'm just not sure I could solicit an academic LOR that would really add much to my application at this point.

Based on what you've given me, I'll likely go ahead with just the two extant letters unless a school specifically asks for something else.