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I wrote a particular language proficiency in Chinese on my resume. However, when I looked up official proficiency guidelines I realized that I am not as proficient as I said I am. I am worried that someone will start speaking to me in Chinese at an interview and I will look like a fool. What should I do?

*please do not quote
*this is anon for obvious reasons, if an interviewer sees this they'll know who I am

When you hand an employer an updated resume, they generally look for changes. If you remove this, have a good reason for doing so.

Maybe admitting it would gain you points with some employers for integrity, but I'd guess it's more likely to demonstrate you're not the genuine article.

I'd change it for future applications of course, but for the ones already out there, just leave it as it is. If someone tests you on it and you "fail" and they point out that you said you were native or fluent or whatever, just explain it the way you did--you put it down that way because XYZ but you didn't know what the "official" guidelines are. Chances are you're screwed anyway, but my experience has been that language proficiency won't come up in the vast majority of interviews--and if it does, it's someone just asking you about it, not someone actually speaking the language expecting you to carry a conversation in it. Depends where you've applied, whether the firm does any work requiring/preferring that language, and such though, I guess.

How far off are you? If you took a semester of Mandarin and claimed you were fluent, well you straight up lied. If you said fluent and you are really just a fairly strong conversational speaker, just let the mistake go. If anyone tests you, you should be able to do okay.

It's not like they are going to sit you down for a 3 hour test to determine some "official" (hint there is no such thing anyway) level.