The few times I’ve attempted to order food in Spanish the counter person was always gracious and gently corrected my grammar.
By and large that’s the case where I’m from as well. I still get nervous speaking it anyway.
I was traveling with my roommate in Mexico who was using a grant to do some research in zoology. He invited me to go with him as I was fluent in Spanish. At lunch one day he asked me to teach him how to pronounce Spanish so he could order his meal. We ran through the basics of how the vowels are pronounced and a few consonants that are different. There wasn't time to cover accents and syllable stress.
He does ok by ordering "una cerveza" to drink. Then he gets to the soup, where there are several choices. He wants potato soup so he orders "crema de papá". The waiter dropped to his knees he was laughing so hard. My bewildered buddy watches me and the waiter laughing with tears starting to roll down our cheeks.
Finally, I explain to him that "papa" means potato (or pope) in Spanish and that "papá" means father.
Like most people my age who lived in my area, I took French in high school and one semester in college.
So while I’m not afraid to try to pronounce Spanish from the menu at a Mexican restaurant, I’ll readily confess that with my southern accent pulling rank on the Spanish, I sound more like Peggy Hill. At least that’s what my daughter says. Doesn’t bother me and it apparently is a great source of amusement to the Mexican waiters who laugh and wink at me and tell me thanks for trying.
Peach