I have experienced the same thing speaking French in the United States. I have a good number of close friends who are native French speakers, and we often used to get together in Detroit. (I’ve since moved.)

Naturally, when we did, some of them were very anxious to have an opportunity to speak their mother tongues. And we enjoyed ourselves walking around, getting coffee or cocktails, and loudly speaking and joking in French.

Invariably, and I mean every single time, we would get the skunk eye or a muttered comment from someone.

Languages are so rich and valuable and add so much to a person’s life. I can’t imagine why people get resentful about other people speaking other languages.