Grrr. People are rude.

So I'm at work the other day (Friday, to be exact), and some dude from another department comes over to our group and proceeds to tell each person individually that there's a bunch of food in his area. That is, he told everyone except me. Instead, he told the person in the cubicle in front of mine that she was free to "tell your friend, because I'm not going to" ... and he punctuated it with a dismissive wave of his hand. Nice.

Now, I just want to point out that I don't know this guy. I mean, I've seen him around, but I've never so much as spoken two words to him. We're not in the same group, and our two groups never have any reason for interaction. I've just never given him much thought, good or bad. So I was a little taken aback, since it was such an overt way of dismissing me. It's not that he forgot -- it's that he wanted to make a point of not inviting me.

So I mentioned this to someone else in the office. I wanted to know if I'd said or done something of which I had no idea. Turns out, the guy dislikes me because I don't speak Spanish to other Spanish-speaking people in the office. Seriously. He's ticked off because I speak English in the office, even to other Spanish-speaking people.

Is that wrong? Why should I be forced to speak Spanish with someone just because we both speak the language? First of all, I can be a bit self-conscious about my Spanish. I've been here most of my life, so even though I consider myself fluent in Spanish, I recognize that I make a few mistakes, and I know for certain I have an American accent, so I tend to shy away from speaking Spanish to someone I don't know, for fear they'll make fun of me. And second of all, why is that wrong? If I know you, and I choose to speak Spanish to you, fine. But if I don't, should that be held against me? Does that make me a bad person? a person unworthy of free food?

I don't think so, but this guy obviously does. I won't lose any sleep over it, but I have to admit that it did bother me a bit. It just seems so idiotic, and it did sting a bit to be singled out in front of coworkers.

Am I wrong?