外媒：微信發語音是職場身份的象徵

活躍用戶超過10億，微信是當之無愧的國民級應用，但是使用微信的語音信息功能卻要謹慎一些。尤其是在職場中，除非你身居高位，否則後果自負。如今，連老外都已經洞悉這個職場禁忌，身在其中的你還有什麼理由裝糊塗呢！

WeChat has a voice message function that allows you to press a button and record your message. For the uninitiated, this is just another way of sending messages that’s interchangeable with text messages. However, sending a voice message on WeChat is considered obnoxious in the Chinese professional world, and usually only tolerated if it is sent from a superior to a subordinate.

微信有一種發送語音信息的功能，按下按鈕便可以口述記錄你想發送的信息。對於那些缺少經驗的人來說，這不過是另一種可替換文字信息的方式而已。但是，在中國職場，用微信發送語音信息卻會令人生厭，通常只有上級發給下級的語音信息纔會被容忍。

Why is that?

爲什麼呢？

Many professionals in China use WeChat, not email, as the primary medium for workplace communication. A chat situation like the one below is guaranteed to infuriate the recipient:

中國的很多職場人士在工作中一般不用電子郵件，而主要通過微信來交流。如果連續向人發送語音長信息絕對會讓對方很惱火，如下圖：

If you’re in a noisy place (e.g., a networking event or a party), you have to strain your ears or find a quiet place to hear it. If you’re in a library, you have to dig up your headphones. If you’re in a meeting, you have to wait until the meeting is over. Fully taking in the message requires careful listening and sometimes even transcription.

如果你正處於嘈雜環境中（比如社交活動或派對），你必須豎起耳朵或找一塊僻靜地方纔能聽清；如果在圖書館裏，還得翻出耳機來聽；如果正在開會，只能等會議結束。要想完全瞭解對方說了什麼，你不僅要認真聽，有時候還要藉助語音轉錄功能。

Worse, the message content doesn’t live anywhere in textual form so nothing mentioned will be searchable in the future. Audio messages also cannot be forwarded.

更討厭的是，語音信息無法以文字形式保存，因此以後也不能通過關鍵詞搜索找尋到。語音信息也不能轉發。

WeChat does have a function to automatically convert audio messages into text messages if you hold a bubble down. But this only works in the simplified Chinese version of the WeChat app. And the conversion may not be accurate if the sender speaks a Chinese dialect or has a strong accent.

雖說微信有將語音信息自動轉化爲文字的功能（長按語音信息即可選擇），但這僅適用於簡體中文版本的微信應用。而且，如果發送者講的是方言或口音較重，都會影響文字轉換的準確性。

Moreover, WeChat does not support pausing in the middle of playing a voice message or scrubbing the audio to jump to another point in time. If you miss one important word, you must replay the whole message from the very beginning. Receiving voice messages also takes up more data, which could incur costs if the recipient doesn’t have wifi.

此外，微信並不支持在播放一段語音信息時停頓或快進。如果你聽漏了一個重要的詞，就只能從頭播放整段信息。接收語音信息也會耗費更多流量，如果不是在無線網絡環境下，就會產生更多通信費用。

Sending someone a voice message—instead of typing it out—tells them: “I’m obviously busier and more important than you.” The sender saves time—at the recipient’s expense. Thus it is almost always used in asymmetric relationships: when a boss is communicating a directive to a subordinate, for example.

向某人發送一段語音，而不是把文字打出來，無異於向對方宣告：“我顯然比你更忙也比你更重要。”發送者節省了時間，卻讓接收者付出代價。因此語音信息一般只用於不對等的關係中，比如，當老闆向下屬下達指令時。

So, do not send voice messages on WeChat in a professional situation unless you are communicating with people who clearly consider you to be their boss. Even if you are sending a very long message, type it out—and type it in one long message instead of in multiple short sentences. This reduces the number of times the recipient’s phone vibrates and saves them battery life.

所以，在職場中不要用微信發送語音信息，除非和你交流的人把你當成領導。即使你發送的是一條超長的信息，也請打成文字，而且最好是一條長信息而非多個短句。這會減少對方手機震動的次數，節省電池電量。

If you have to send voice messages for special reasons (e.g., you are driving and the message is urgent, or if your fingers are broken and you cannot type), begin with an apology and communicate that you have no other choice.

如果你出於特殊原因不得不發語音信息（比如正在開車而要說的事很緊急，或者你的手指斷了無法打字），你得先道個歉並告訴對方你實在沒辦法。

While the microphone button is tempting, stick to the keyboard.

總而言之，儘管微信上的麥克風按鈕很誘人，還是老老實實打字吧。