The greatest compliment!

I received some great compliments yesterday at the most random place, Subway. I ran to get some quick dinner after working a wedding all day. We used to live next door, so the owner knows me well. The owner is from India, but speaks to me in Spanish since he lived in Costa Rica for 8 years. When I walked in the young hispanic teenager took my order. The owner walked over and started speaking to me in Spanish and told his employee that I speak Spanish. The kid proceeded to ask me if I was a Spanish teacher. I actually got to say yes and told him where. As they were making my sandwich we made small chit chat (the teenager never spoke Spanish, we sort of would switched back and forth, but he obviously understood everything). The kid stopped me at one point and said, "wow, you have a really good accent, you have a better accent than I do and Im Mexican." I asked him if he had ever lived in Mexico and he said no, but that he visits every summer. I told him that I speak Spanish every day and that I lived in Peru for a year and explained how much that helps. We continued talking and he stopped me again and said, "you speak really fast too!" I was floored. What compliments! I live with a native speaker, so all I ever notice are the mistakes I make, he grammatical errors, the struggling to remember a word, the saying things incorrectly. I know my Spanish is good or I wouldn't be teaching it at a high school level, but hearing from a latino that they are impressed with my accent and speed feels really good! I came home with a smile from ear to ear!

Teaching Spanish to the Quechua kids in Pallpanccay near Cusco Peru, 2005.