I instructed the student, quite passionately, that it was completely acceptable for Galicians to write “Native Spanish Speaker” alongside abilities as “Native Galician Speaker.” For English language learners, I’ve come to see that the word "proficient" is a false friend. “Proficient” means you’re skilled in something, but it also connotes that you still have much to work on when it comes to the more acute abilities that come with being an expert—in this case, with being fluent—at something or some language. A high-school student in the U.S. could (as far as I know) write their Spanish level as “Proficient” after having taken 2 years of high-school language classes. Proficient isn’t a good thing in my mind; it’s simply average.
Whether it was out of humility or not, the student hesitated to put “native speaker” alongside both Galician and Spanish.
I haven’t come to any conclusions about this situation, nor do I have the final say on it at all— but it has made me reflect deeply on my “American” preoconceived notions about bilingualism, and what can and can’t be considered “bilingual.”
