Foreign language fluencies on resume

[OakLeaf]

I think it's fine to put it on your work resume as long as you're not misleading in your interview as to your level of fluency. (If it's that critical, your interview would be partially conducted in the other language, anyhow.)

Just to have someone able to have a basic conversation would be a huge benefit to most firms, if they don't have the volume to support a professional translator full-time. If the person on the other end of the phone sounds like a serious prospect, then you call a contract translator.

My mom - whose primary language was Mandarin from early childhood through her early teens - is re-learning the language in part through teaching it to children adopted from China. Everyone involved is aware of her level of fluency, everyone's okay that she's not qualified to be a UN translator, and everyone's benefiting from the process.

I just wish I could get back the French I used to dream in, in high school and college A few years ago I started reading the French newspapers, but without anyone to converse with, I couldn't speak French to save my life.


ETA: Star, I hear ya re the incident at your job. But I can see that both ways, too. If everybody was speaking the same language, would you need a lawyer there to explain whatever it was? Technically yes for the company's protection and the most accurate explanation, but in practice the receptionist probably would've explained it herself, right?