Recently, I went out to a bar with my friend Nicole. I didn’t actually know her well as we had only met once at a meeting. When I found myself in her town, we decided to meet up. Since we knew little about each other, we shared our stories, and she asked me many questions about my travels.
最近，我和朋友妮可去了一家酒吧。我其实不太了解她，因为我们在一次会议上只见过一次面。当我发现自己在她的城镇时，我们决定见面。由于我们对彼此知之甚少，我们分享了我们的故事，她问了我很多关于我旅行的问题。
When answering her questions about what I had learned in my travels, I told Nicole that travel had greatly improved my ability to “read” people and situations.
在回答她关于我在旅行中学到了什么的问题时，我告诉妮可，旅行极大地提高了我“阅读”人和事的能力。
“Oh? OK. Read my friends over there,” she challenged me.
“哦？好吧。阅读一下我那边的朋友，”她挑战我。
So I offered her my opinions about her friends and the other people in the bar.
所以我向她表达了我对她的朋友和酒吧里其他人的看法。
“How did I do?” I asked when I had finished.
“我做得怎么样？”我完成后问她。
“Wow!” She was shocked.
“哇！”她惊呆了。
You might want to know how I was able to get those people right. For sure, I knew nothing about mind games. I judged their personalities simply by reading their body language, facial expressions, dress, and the way they talked with one another.
你可能想知道我是怎么判断对那些人的。当然，我对心理游戏一无所知。我只是通过阅读他们的肢体语言、面部表情、穿着和彼此交谈的方式来判断他们的性格。
I had travelled a lot before. When I was travelling, I couldn’t always understand what people were trying to say to me as most of them didn’t speak English. Non-verbal communication became very important. Whenever words failed, I depended on people’s facial expressions. By watching how people behaved, I tried to work out how they felt about something. The tone in people’s voices was quite helpful, too.
我以前旅行过很多次。当我旅行时，我并不总是能理解人们想对我说什么，因为他们中的大多数人不会说英语。非言语交流变得非常重要。每当言语失败时，我都会依靠人们的面部表情。通过观察人们的行为，弄清楚他们对某事的感受。人们说话的音调也很有帮助。
The more I travelled and the more I talked with different people, the better I became at “reading” people. If you travel widely, you will be able to develop this ability, too.
我旅行得越多，与不同的人交谈得越多，我就越善于“阅读”别人。如果你广泛旅行，你也能培养这种能力。
