Mind your manners

"It's a strange country."

The speaker was a woman with gray hair fastened in a low pony-tail. She spoke Brooklyn, New York English. Her dress was American sloppy.

We were leaving our coats at the Hermitage cloak room.

My hostess had overheard. "I don't like that," she said.

A few minutes later in the toilets I found myself next to the woman as we washed our hands.

"Madame," I said. "It reflects badly on America when you criticize a country where you are a guest in English when many people understand English." I told her that it offended my local hostess.

Later she came up to me. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. I was saying America was a strange country."

I'd heard the conversation. She wasn't criticizing America.

"America is a strange country," she added.

I did agree with that statement.

"I didn't mean to offend anyone." She wanted to apologize.  That she didn't mean offense and did want to apologize, were probably true.