Spanish

Although I had lived in Buenos Aires for many months when I was very young, I was too young/immature to learn Spanish. The people in Buenos Aires all spoke English very well. I had chosen to learn Spanish since I was in middle school and all through high school. Although I still remember basic concepts and words of the language, it was largely forgotten. My chemistry teacher in high school used to say 'ejole' and 'aye caramba' whenever he got frustrated.
In my high school, I was one of two, that I remember, Korean students in the entire school. My parents had chosen to send me to a farther school from my hometown since the school nearby wasn't that good. As a result I made a lot of Hispanic friends. Learned to use the word 'guey' whenever. Coming to UCSD or any other neighborhood, I would slip in a few Spanish words and it would immediately build some solidarity.
My father, who is very fluent in Spanish, works with a lot of Hispanics and speaks Spanish with them. I would sometimes come up and greet them in Spanish. "Hola. ¿Como estas? Bien Bien. ¿Y tu?" after I go through that part of conversation they would think that I know Spanish and speak sentences to me. That is when my dad would laugh saying I don't know Spanish very well.
I would say 'Orala paisa' to my dad but he would get disappointed and say that the real word is 'paisano' and if I wanted to use the language, I should learn it properly.