Lost in Translation

For work, I often work with my patients to help them be oriented to their surroundings. Sometimes we wonder if I'm oriented though. This particular day, I was working with Mr. A, a hard of hearing, rather aged gentleman who couldn't decide whether he spoke English or Spanish as he was fluent in both. I've been studying and learning Spanish and making some gains. Or so I thought. (Pardon the incorrect typing of Spanish characters, but I can't figure out how to fix it at the moment. Suffice it to say that I know this is dreadfully wrong at the moment!)

Me: "Senor, what city are we in?"

Mr. A (very hard of hearing): "?Que?"

Me (louder): "What city are you in? Where are we?"

Mr. A: "?Que?"

Me: "?Que cuidad estamos?"

Mr. A: "Why do I have to be careful?" (unfortunately, his voice was so gravely and his accent so thick that I had no idea what he said, I just knew that he didn't say "Bakersfield").

Me: "?Que cuidad estamos?" (I'm practically yelling by this point)

Enter Becka, my friend and fellow speech pathologist in the next office over. Becka walks in and says, "He's asking you why he needs to be careful. You're saying 'cuidad' not 'ciudad.' You want to say 'ciudad.'" At which point she then explained to the poor gentleman what I was doing wrong and they had a good laugh. He turned out to be not as confused as I thought.