Thanks for this thread!

I work in housekeeping and am still new, and I enjoy talking to the Spanish workers who enjoy teaching me Spanish, but there is one worker whom everyone loves who did not like it when I spoke Spanish to him and seemed offended by it, and I felt he didn't like me. One day we were partners. He'd often ask me how to say things in English, and we talked a lot (in English), but by the end of the day I realized something. He quickly warmed up to me as we spoke more and more in English, but he repeated something remarkable with tremendous pride, "I learned English in school! I learned English in school!" After high school (in Mexico), he described spending six months in a higher-level school learning English. I realized he is very proud of being able to speak English and gets excited to be able to have conversations in English, just as I get excited to speak Spanish. We both seemed to realize that about each other because since that day, we're the best of friends and we communicate and joke around in both English and Spanish. And hey, I made another friend!