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tisiphone December 21 2009, 23:28:59 UTC
I list them just like that.

"German: fluent"
"French: basic reading knowledge"
...

And so on. And no, it's not assumed English is your native language, but it's assumed that if you can write a resume in it you probably have fluency.

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hkitsune December 21 2009, 23:30:50 UTC
You can also list by level, if you know several at several levels:

Fluent: blah blah
Intermediate: blah blah
Beginner: blah blah

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ambtiondata December 22 2009, 00:23:37 UTC
If you're entering a field of literary study, you can tailor it to highlight your abilities in reading and translating and thereby never mention your inability to speak, write, etc. But use a short phrase to describe your level rather than the complete sentences you show here.

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tisiphone December 22 2009, 00:42:08 UTC
tailor it to highlight your abilities in reading and translating and thereby never mention your inability to speak, write, etc

That goes all the time I think - tell them what you can do, never what you can't.

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roadtophd December 22 2009, 00:34:25 UTC
If you've taken college courses, another approach would be to state what level you reached in the language. "I can speak at a medium level" can be interpreted in a lot of different ways and I've heard stories in my field (clinical psychology) of applicants being asked to demonstrate their fluency during an in-person interview. I don't know how often this happens but I would try to be clear and honest about your capabilities. This is more or less what my CV says:

Spanish: Complete fluency since childhood; extensive experience living and studying in Spain and Latin America
French: Proficient in speaking, writing, reading; several college level literature courses

(In other words, I'm cool doing an interview in Spanish but I might mess up a little in French, especially when it comes to using passe compose vs. imparfait on the fly...)

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i_like_snow December 22 2009, 01:19:12 UTC
If its a heading on its own you should follow the instructions that these ppl said, but if it's in a area of your resume called Special Skills or somn, only put the ones you are fluent or intermediate and specify that

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