Just a girl in the world

Today some kind of director or head or coordinator or something of my department came to my office. (There are at least three people so far who have been introduced to me as something like the department head; I can't keep them straight.) To talk about the noise in my class, of course, although it was more of a follow-up than a "Houston, we have a problem" type talk, and I could honestly say that this week the students have been much quieter. (The colas gordas incident happened at the very end of class, so it was barely even disruptive.) Still, whenever someone tells me something about how the department is behind me, it just makes me feel like they think I can't do my job (not that they'd be entirely wrong) and gets me worried that someone will end up in my class as enforcer and that would be humiliating. But anyway, he was super nice and we were having a pleasant conversation (in English, because he started the conversation in English), and then the following happened.

Him: Well, you're a girl and you're young so they probably don't respect you. You're teaching in English?

Me: No, in Spanish.

Him, after a pause: Do you speak Spanish?

Me: Not very well.

Him: Well, then, there's that, too.

Even if my Spanish doesn't get better (some days it feels like it isn't getting better), this must be building a lot of character or something.