>>>My wife is from Peru, and her family is from Zaragoza, Spain. About 45 years ago we were at a Christmas Party, and we sat opposite a couple from El Salvador, who spoke Spanish to each other. They were extremely insulting to us and we remained quiet. Then the husband said to his wife that they had better be careful as it was possible that we could understand Spanish. The wife asked: ¿Habla usted español? My wife responded: No! Yo hablo castellano! At that point I stepped away from the table, laughing my head off, and took my wife with me. :) My wife is 5' 2", and I am 6' 7". I dislike seeing fur fly! My wife will not take anything from anyone.
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>>For spanish, they should have known better. It's much more funny with hungarian, because Hungarians assume that when they move 50km from their border, nobody speaks the language. Make that 600km and they are absolutely sure.
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>>The incident in case was much more benign, we were in a camp (with tents, very few trailers back then), and they were two tents away. I didn't speak hungarian yet, but my wife did - hell, she passed elementary and high school in that language - and they were rather loud so she heard practically everything. Then they approached us to ask for directions were to find the gasket for the pressure cooker, and my wife replied in hungarian. The next day, the neighborhood got really quiet.
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>In my experience only 'language impaired ' people make such a mistake. Personally i assume nothing.

Not usually a problem with English. I always assume the odds are people can understand what I'm saying.
Anyway I hope I wouldn't be so rude as to talk about someone in front of them on the basis they couldn't understand what I'm saying.