Why do people lie about level ?

[sillygoose1]

It depends on the person. Me for example, when I put my level I only put it for passive skills. Something else I used to do was put a level on my profile one higher than it was to motivate me more to reach that level and do more work to reach it.

I don't really think it's a big problem. If it gets people interested in their studies and motivates them then go for it. I don't think anyone here feels like they have anything to prove to anyone else anyway.

[leosmith]

HTLAL thread on this.

[aaleks]

Reading through some older threads on here, i've recently noticed several members who had language skills at B1, B2, etc, some even had them in the A's, just months ago, and now they are saying that they're C2 etc.

I don't believe this is possible and wonder why people would lie ?

One person said they were A2 like 2 months ago and now say they're C1 etc.

Is this an overestimation of skill, self confidence or just fibbing ?

I wouldn't call it a "lie" (or maybe I just prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt ).
In my case all those A2, B1 or C1, etc are just a way of speaking and a lame attempt of assessment my own skills. The only reason why, for example, I assume that my passive skills (reading, listening) are somewhere about C level is the fact that I have no, or very little, problems to understand native (English) books, series, movies, news. But at the same time I know that my active skills (writing, speaking) are far behind, probably A2-B1.
And either way, since my TL is English, I'm giving out my real level in my every post here . So if I overstate my level it means that I'm just mistaken and wrongly understand those levels .

[blaurebell]

Well, I don't know, the Dialang test told me the other day that my reading comprehension in French is C2 now, but obviously I haven't changed my profile to match that because I don't think it's accurate. Until I feel ready to tackle French philosophy I'm not yet at C2 comprehension. I tend to underestimate rather than overestimate.

As for A2 to C1 in a couple of months, that's totally possible if this is just fluency. That can really be super fast. I think when I moved to England my English speaking skills jumped from a rusty high B1 to C1 in about 3 weeks because I could write at that level already and just had to get used to producing correct English sentences "on a deadline". C2 speaking and discussing complex philosophical topics from there was about a year of total immersion with really heavy university courses though, the kind of courses where they shove 20,000 pages of core reading down your throat in half a year. I believe that jumping from B2 to C2 hinges on crazy amounts of input and output, like 1500h+ audio, 20,000-30,000 pages reading, 50,000-100,000 words output, hundreds of hours of speaking with adequate feedback, and so on. I'd guess about 2500h+ in an easy language. Even at 7h a day, 50h a week, that takes a about a year.

[Estrella]

One person said they were A2 like 2 months ago and now say they're C1 etc.

Is this an overestimation of skill, self confidence or just fibbing ?

Maybe they underestimated their skills when they said they were A2.

[aokoye]

I think very few people are knowingly lying. I think it's more an issue of people not actually knowing what level they are, applying CEFR levels to languages where they are rarely applied (Japanese and Manderin for example), or grossly over or underestimating their skill levels.
There's also the case of people entering in levels for specific skills. My listening level of German is likely a high C1 but my reading is around B2.

[IronMike]

I only put the levels that I've tested in. If I'm guessing at my level, I put a question mark next to the language.

[IronMike]

I only put the levels that I've tested in. If I'm guessing at my level, I put a question mark next to the language.

So you're tested C1 in Russian ? That's pretty impressive !!

Yeah, C1 in reading. Strong B2 in listening and speaking.

[Systematiker]

Many of mine are estimates - that's why I've got a ~ next to it. I also average for a pretty significant gap between receptive and productive. I've only got flat statements where I've tested.

That said, it may be that some people underestimate, overestimate, get a misleading test, or just want to be cool. I mean, we're the cool kids, right?

[qeadz]

Dunning-Kruger effect, poor gradings from study companions and courses, misinterpretation of statistics... all contributors no doubt.

But I think, personally, everyone likes to stand on their soapbox and preach to other people. We're all opinionated and to some degree life can be frustrating when others point out our shortcomings and jump on their soapboxes. The internet lets you choose to hide your shortcomings, you can kind of pretend to be more than (or at least different to) the person you are...

The problem with pretending, especially when statistics are involved, is that it turns out to be an arms race and it gets a little ridiculous. "You learn 50 words a day? Well I don't want to feel like I'm behind so I'm going to say I'm easily learning 100 a day".

So I parse everything I read online through the filter of "this person may not actually have the 'credentials' to back up their statement. they are likely stating opinion as fact".