waltondammerung

Non-Hispanic White moment #2

Had a yard sale the other day with some friends. There were lots of Spanish-speaking people there, of course. Consider the following coversation:

Woman looking at some placemats I'm selling says, in Spanish: "These are very lovely, but they're not the same color as my dishes."
Me--without thinking that she had no idea I had understood what she said--in English: "I have the same problem. My dishes are green and gray."
[Insert awkward pause here]
Woman, in English this time: "I said that these are very nice, but they don't match my dishes."
Me: "I know."
[Woman leaves without buying anything.]
Un aplauso for the gringa for making a fool out of herself. I could have at least responded in Spanish. Not that it would have been intelligible.

Embarrassment aside, this made me think a bit. I've been known to speak a particular language because I know no one around me will understand it. Heck, I spoke French with another American when we were at Versailles because everyone around us was speaking English. Which brings me to my question. Which is more rude? 1. Speaking a language when you are comfortably certain that the person standing directly in front of you won't understand it. 2. Making it obvious that you understood something said in another language that was definitely not meant for you to hear.