好英语网外语能力牛上天 简历上夸张谎言小心被拆穿
Several years ago, Facebook started allowing users to add ‘languages spoken’ to their profiles.
几年前脸书（Facebook）开始允许用户在个人资料中添加一项“会说的语言”。
One thing became abundantly clear: I had, apparently, been living a life populated with polyglots.
有件事一下子变得非常清楚：很明显，原来我身边有这么多通晓多国语言的人。
All at once, everyone I knew started claiming to be multilingual – despite the fact that I had never heard these people mutter even a word of a foreign language before. (My favourites were the people who said they spoke both US English and UK English.)
突然间，我认识的每个人都开始声称自己会说多种语言——尽管我以前从未听这些人说过外语，哪怕是一个词。（我最喜欢的是那些称自己会说美国英语和英国英语两种语言的人。)
This trend doesn’t end with Facebook profiles either. The embellishment seeps into the workplace, surfacing when people apply for jobs. On LinkedIn and in job applications, many people don’t think twice about slapping down a greatly exaggerated foreign language ability.
这一趋势并非仅限于脸书的个人资料。这种个人资料的修饰已渗透到工作场所，出现在人们求职时。在领英网（LinkedIn）上和求职申请中，很多人都不假思索写下了被自己极度夸大的外语能力。
But can this backfire?
但这会适得其反吗？
Language skills are easy to lie about
说到语言能力撒谎很容易
Of course, CVs have been riddled with little white lies practically as long as the modern labour market has existed, so this isn’t new. In a 2015 survey by CareerBuilder of 2,000 full-time hiring managers in the US, 56% said they had caught an applicant in a lie, like bloating past job titles and responsibilities to even listing an imaginary university. What’s more, they specifically said that 63% of applicants embellished a skill on their CV.
当然，只要现代劳动力市场存在，简历中几乎就一直充斥着善意的小谎言，这并不新鲜。在凯业必达（CareerBuilder）招聘网2015年对美国2000名全职招聘经理进行的一项调查中，56%的被调查者说他们发现应聘者在撒谎，比如夸大过去的职位和职责，甚至列出一所虚构的大学。此外，他们特别指出，63%的求职者在简历中夸大了某项技能。
Another survey of 2,000 hiring managers by Hloom, a company that provides templates for cover letters and CVs, found that the second-worst lie an applicant could put on their CV was foreign language fluency – topped only by lying about the university they graduated from, and followed by academic major.
Hloom是一家提供求职信和简历模板的公司，该公司对2000名招聘经理进行了另一项调查。调查发现，应聘者简历上的第二大谎言是外语流利度，排第一的是毕业的大学，第三是学术专业。
So, what is it about language skills in particular that makes people overinflate their worth?
那么，语言技能有什么特别，让人们过度夸大其价值呢?
脸书的界面现在有100多种语言可供选择。很多人在他们的个人资料中，都试图显示他们会多种语言
Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of management at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, boils it down to something he calls “elastic justification”: “Where basically, they exaggerate things where it’s difficult to draw a bright line – so language is a good example,” he says.
宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）沃顿商学院（Wharton）管理学教授施魏策尔（Maurice Schweitzer）将其归结为一种他称之为“弹性判断”（elastic justification）的现象。他说：“人们夸大的一般都是很难划清明确界限的事——语言就是一个很好的例子。”
In other words, your alleged Tagalog faculty is less clear-cut and more fudgeable, unlike something as plain as your university degree. (Though Schweitzer says plenty of people make those up on their CVs, too.)
换句话说，如果你自称是他家禄语（Tagalog）教师，这件事的真相就不像你的大学学位那么清清楚楚，比较容易蒙骗别人。（不过施魏策尔说，很多人也在自己简历上捏造大学学位这些东西。）
Naturally, for translation jobs or other positions that require specific bilingual requirements, you can expect some kind of test to see if your skills are up to snuff.
当然，对于翻译工作或其他有特殊双语要求的职位，可能会有一些测试，看看你声称的语言技能是否合格。
But if you’re applying for a graphic design gig and want to throw in the fact that you speak some Spanish (read: studied the subject briefly at university and haven’t spoken it since), what’s the big deal?
但如果你申请的是一份平面设计工作，并且想额外说明你会说一些西班牙语（意思是：在大学里短期学习过这个科目，之后没说过这种语言），那又有什么大不了的？
‘What else are you lying about?’
‘你还撒了什么谎？’
People lie on their CVs for the same reason they lie about their language skills on something as banal as Facebook. They want to impress people. The problem is, if you’re deceptive about your qualifications on an application – no matter how trivial you think it is – it leaves a really bad indelible impression on potential employers.
人们在简历上撒谎的原因和他们在脸书这样的社交平台对自己的语言技能撒谎是一样的。他们想给人留下深刻印象。问题是，如果你在填写申请的资历时欺骗他人——不管你认为有多么微不足道——都会给潜在雇主留下非常糟糕的、难以消除的印象。
Schweitzer says some even lie in the interests section of their CV, if they choose to include this part, and may even exaggerate their hobbies or expertise areas in order to project a certain image of themselves, or to come off as well-rounded or memorable.
施魏策尔说，有些人甚至会在简历的兴趣部分撒谎，如果他们在填写简历时选择填写兴趣爱好，他们甚至可能会夸大自己的爱好或专业才能，以表现自己，想给他人留下多才多艺或令人难忘的印象。
Saying you like Star Trek or cinema, or saying you compete in marathons, might spark a follow-up question or an interviewer’s attempt at harmless small talk – but if it becomes obvious you don’t know as much about those things as you suggest, the hiring manager might wonder what else you’re lying about. Is this someone they trust and who they’d want to bring onto their team?
说你喜欢《星际迷航》（Star Trek）或者电影，或者说你参加过马拉松比赛，可能会引发雇主跟进提问，或者面试官尝试无恶意的闲聊——但要是发现你对于那些事情的了解并不像你所说的那么多，招聘经理就可能会想除了这之外，你还撒了什么谎。他们会想：眼前的这个人是他们能够信任，想带到工作团队的人吗？
“What’s interesting about language is it’s really quite vague,” says Schweitzer. “If I can order at a restaurant in Italian, in my own mind, I might justify to myself I’m conversant in it – it’s that ambiguity that makes it so interesting.”
施魏策尔说：“语言的有趣之处在于界限非常模糊。如果我能在餐厅用意大利语点餐，在我自己看来，我可以自认为已精通意大利语——何为精通难以界定，正是这种模糊不清才显得如此有趣。”
It’s a sort of self-delusion that might seem harmless at first, but it can rebound once the liar starts applying for more prominent or public positions.
这种自欺欺人乍一看似乎对人无害，但一旦说谎者开始申请更重要或公务职位，这种自欺欺人就会反弹。
Schweitzer points to a recent news story about the US Florida House of Representatives candidate who lied about going to a certain university – an apparently bogus claim that led to her dropping out of the race this week. She claimed she graduated from the university with a degree – the university says she didn’t – but she did attend the commencement ceremony, which explains a photo of her wearing a cap and gown.
施魏策尔指出，最近有一则新闻报道称，美国佛罗里达州（Florida）众议院的一名候选人谎称自己上了某所大学——这显然是捏造的，结果导致她最后退出竞选。她声称自己毕业于该校并获得学位，但校方称并无其事。但她确实参加了毕业典礼，这就是为什么有一张她戴着帽子，身穿长袍的照片。
This is elastic judgment at play. If you’re associated with some aspect of accomplishment – putting Italian on your CV and being able to order bruschetta in Rome – you may start telling people, and actually believing to a certain extent, that you can actually speak Italian well enough to brag about it.
这就是现实生活中的弹性判断。如果你和某方面成就拉上关系——比如把意大利语写进简历，能在罗马点意式烤面包——你可能会开始告诉别人，并且在某种程度上相信，你真的能说一口流利的意大利语来自我吹嘘。
But such an “error in judgment,” as the Florida candidate described her own fiasco, could end up sabotaging you in a big way.
但这种“判断错误”，正如那位佛罗里达候选人自称遭到惨败那样，最终可能会对你造成巨大的伤害。
The best way to handle language skills on a CV
在简历中描述语言能力的最好方法
All this isn’t to scare you off from putting a language skill on your CV or public social media presence.
所有这些并不是为了吓退你，让你不敢在简历或社交媒体上展示你有某种语言技能。
But if you claim to speak Arabic on your job application, even as a small side note, be prepared for the possibility that the interviewer starts speaking to you in Arabic. Such a worst-case scenario is a good litmus test for deciding what (or what not) to include.
但如果你在求职申请中声称自己会说阿拉伯语，哪怕只是一个小小的注解，也要做好准备，有可能面试官会用阿拉伯语跟你说话。试想最糟糕的情况是一个很好的自我测试方式，可以用来决定自己的简历中应该（或不应该）写进哪些内容。
Meg Montee is a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC. She says that common descriptors like conversational or fluent aren’t really helpful because internationally, easily-measured standards system for levels of language ability aren't always widely used or understood by all. Sure, there are lots of standardised tests out there (especially for non-native English learners), but she also says they’re expensive and take a lot of time to prepare for.
蒙提（Meg Montee）是位于华盛顿的应用语言学中心（Center for Applied Linguistics）的高级助理研究员。她表示像“可会话”或“流利”这样的通用描述并不真正有帮助，因为国际上语言能力水平容易衡量的标准体系并不总是被广泛使用或被所有人理解。当然，现在有很多标准化的考试（尤其是针对母语非英语的学习者），但她也说这些考试费用昂贵，而且要花很多时间来准备。
Instead, she recommends being as specific as possible. “Specific statements of, ‘I can explain directions,’” Montee says. “Someone who works in public transportation needs to be able to clearly make announcements in the language and be understood by the general public. In an office job, you need to be able to write memos that would be understood by a general audience.”
相反，她建议对语言能力的描述尽可能具体明确。蒙提说：“描述要明确，比如‘我可以向人指路解释方向’，在公共交通领域工作的人需要能够清楚地用这种语言发表声明，并让公众能够理解。在办公室工作中，你要能够写出能被一般大众理解的备忘录。”
Sound like too much work? Chances are, if you can’t come up with a small list of actual tasks you can carry out, you probably shouldn’t put the language down on the application in the first place. It’s not worth running the risk.
详细描述听起来工作量太大？可能的情况是，如果你无法提供关于你语言能力的具体说明，你或许一开始就不应该把语言能力写入职位申请中。不值得冒这个险。
“People may not be lying on purpose,” Montee says. “But they’ve constructed an identity and that’s how they see themselves.”
蒙提说：“人们可能不是故意撒谎，但他们已经构建了一个身份，这就是他们对自己的看法。”
This is the rule of thumb for the bigger job-hunting principles at play here: it’s never worth lying your CV.
这是一条很重要的求职经验法则：永远不值得你在简历上撒谎。
Schweitzer says if you’re even wondering about whether to include something, don’t bother including it. It’s easy to slip into a tunnel-vision mentality when you’re looking for work – goal number one is finding a job, goal number two might be being honest – but when in doubt, go with your gut.
施魏策尔说，如果你对是否把某些东西写进简历而举棋不定，那就别费心加进去了。找工作时，很容易陷入一种一根筋的心态——首要目标是找工作，第二目标才可能是诚实——但当你有怀疑的时候，应跟着直觉走。
“We’re always trying to impress other people – and I think people do get some sort of boost for just seeing themselves in a certain light,” he says. “People can justify behaviours to themselves pretty readily.”
他说：“我们总是试图给别人留下好印象——我认为人们如果给自己加上一些光环，确实能获得某些帮助。人们可以很容易地为自己的行为辩护。”