Huh?

My roommates had basically the most typical conversation ever the other day. I'm not complaining; I was mostly amused. (Incidentally, the Spanish word típico kind of means typical, but without the sarcastic connotation that it usually has in English. I still smile at restaurants that advertise "comida típica": typical food.) Anyway, the conversation went more or less like this:

La Burgoseña: I went to the store today and they kept talking to me in Catalan!

El Catalan: You're in Catalunya -- people speak Catalan here.

La Burgoseña: But they speak Spanish too, right? And I started talking in Spanish! Why would they answer in Catalan?

El Catalan: It's normal here to have conversations where one person speaks Spanish and the other person speaks Catalan. Most people understand both, so people speak whichever one they feel more comfortable with.

La Burgoseña (who has family in Bilbao): But not everyone speaks Catalan, and I started the conversation in Spanish. In Bilbao no one would ever answer in Basque if you started speaking to them in Spanish.

El Catalan: But most people here speak Catalan, and most people in Bilbao don't speak Basque. If you don't speak Basque you can't understand it at all. But if you speak Spanish you can understand some Catalan if you pay attention.

La Burgoseña: But I started talking in Spanish and I don't speak Catalan -- they could have just answered me in Spanish!

(Another round or two of the same basic points.)

Me: Practice your gringo accent -- no one ever assumes I speak Catalan.

Both roommates: Huh?

Joder. I always forget that no one says gringo here (guiri is the slang term for foreigner), but I think the bigger issue is they just don't think I'm funny. Well, whatever. I'm here to learn Spanish, not to make people laugh.