I give her credit for having respect enough to learn the language
of her host country.
She might have just wanted to talk to her parents.
Is there some reason to believe her parents didn't speak English? Her
dad was born in the USA. My grandparents came from Europe and learned
English when they got here and from then on did not want to speak their
native Russian, German, and Polish. My mom, born here, had a proper
Bostonian accent, and my dad sounded as if he came from Philly.