Yeah, I think it can go either way. I've had a few situations in Russia where speaking the language evoked "You idiot. You should know better and let me set you straight." while speaking English evoked "Stupid American. Here's how we fix it."
Both your responses have the person taking on the role of a --short term-- mentee: they show some sort of of connection + naïveté that prompts the authority figure into rooting for them ie caring enough to indicate next steps. '