language barriers

this afternoon i fell into conversation with a nice, well-meaning woman who i just met last weekend. we've maybe spoken all of three times.

woman: hey, i learned a word in chinese.
me: (fumbling for words as my sleep-deprived brain processes this fact slowly)...uh, i'm not chinese.
woman: oh.
me: (dramatic pause) i'm korean.
me: what's the word?
woman: chicken wings. i get it all the time and i wanted to know how to say it.
woman: so you can't speak chinese?
me: no.
woman: what is your main language?
me: (aw, shucks. english doesn't count?) umm, i guess if i could speak korean, i would speak it, but i don't.
woman: so that's what they speak in korea? you don't speak chinese?
me: (am i really saying this?) no, koreans speak korean, and the chinese speak different dialects.
woman: that's like in the west indies! they have all these different dialects. like in haiti, they speak creole, which comes from french, and the...(at which point i tuned her out as i was just totally incapable of holding a conversation of any sort).
another woman, who has been silent until now, enters the conversation.
2nd woman: oh, you're from the west indies?
1st woman: no, i'm american. but my parents are from....

and so it went on.