You can choose to be offended or not. In the past i have had words shouted at me (faggot, queer etc) whilst walking down Old Compton Street in Soho, I chose to ignore it and carried on walking. Once the person shouting gets no response they usually stop.
I’m sorry you had that experience. Sadly the world seems to be getting less, not more tolerant these days.
While we are talking about words which have changed usage both those you mention fit the bill well.
Brought from mediocrity, this won’t undo misapprehension little.
[taken to extremes this could make comprehension difficult 
]
Admittedly I know quite a few people who seem to follow Humpty’s advice.
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The idiosyncrasies of nice people with good intentions are always fine 
and coming from someone foreign making an effort there’s more acceptance of them too.
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Perhaps it is a regional thing… male French car club pals (of similar age to OH and me) will greet me using all sorts of words/phrases including… Ma Petite Anglaise, Ma Belle, Madamoiselle 
I copy their example with people I know well enough… obviously changing the words according to male/female… and no-one’s complained yet 
Just one time I did “almost” get it wrong but the phrase I used and my expression told everyone I was NOT being rude… and the whole place echoed with friendly laughter. (and NO, I’m not putting the phrase here)
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Me too. I actually enjoyed it. The guy asked a question which set me off on describing our shooting range, weaponary and playing soldiers. To this day, 60 years later, I recall that I was brought up short when he asked “Avez vous aussi des mitrailleuses?” “Mitrailleuse?” “Machine guns”
Off I went again about the 5 Brens in the armoury.
I’m very thankful for the 8 years of FR lessons - that’s a lot of teaching to pass 'O’Level. I now know that it exceeded 'O’Level by a long way.
However, it took me 3 goes to pass 'O’Level maths!
No probs to me. I use it about myself, as I do smudger. As a snapper, I can’t be insulted, knowing I have photographs in a Nat Portrait Gall’y/Sunday Times collection and an archive, now digitised, in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. of photographs I archived whilst employed in Peshawar, Pakistan by The State Dept of The USA.
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yep, she asked me what I did in Summer… and I went on and on about swimming, tennis, sunbathing, barbecues on the beach etc etc…
She briefly sounded incredulous at one point, but I soldiered on.
Only later, when I thought about it… did I realise she’d actually asked what I did in Winter.
But, she obviously decided I was from hardy stock… swimming in the snow… and gave me top(ish) marks.
I’d only studied French for 2 years at that point… did she take that into consideration… no idea… but I was able to stop French lessons and take on German (oh, what joy 
… all I remember of that is how to order a glass of beer)
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Lewis Hamilton had a season when he had numerous runs-in with the stewards. In an interview he joked “Ali G says it’s coz I’m black”
He identifies completely with black culture. I have wondered what his mother thinks about that.
I was astonished at a conversation amongst the dinner guests in Port of Pain, Trinidad - all professional people with tertiary education. They described the extraordinary range of colours that could be ascribed to Trinis of all races and racial mixes. Trinidad is a very mixed society. ‘High Brown/Low Brown/Red/Yellow … Black’
It was clear that the lowest rung on the social ladder was Black. Nobody at the table was Black, by their definition, tho’ almost all were, to mine.
Re Spanish … A Brit married to a Spanish woman called her una zorra, in jest. She didn’t speak to him for 3 days. When she eventually calmed down he asked why she’d taken so, because he’d heard her and her women friends calling each other una zorra frequently.
I guess it all depends …
I often wonder how things are at, for example, a hotel reception desk when the receptionist asks “And you are …?”
“Prat”
"No need to be rude, sir … "
"Mr. Guy Prat. With the Gilmour touring party … "
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I have a cousin with that name…he changed it by deed poll when he was young🤔
To, or from ‘Prat’?
I lament the loss of the apostrophe in public signage…
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I had pals who lived at Elmer’s End, just on from Anerley.
There’s Catbrain, Bristol. And, improbably except this is England, Matching Tye
My poor friend had Butt as her surname, she was fed up of being the butt of jokes and changed it at 18 as well to her mothers maiden name!
A long, long time ago my then partner had a summer job as an exam checker for the JMB (an ‘O’ and ‘A’ level exam board) and every evening she’d return with silly names people had given their kids - ‘Neil Down’ was depressingly common.
There was a girl in my class at GS, called something like Cherilynne Whipp- which even then in the Sixties sounded like some chemical alternative to Bird’s Angel Delight.
My sister in law called her daughter Anna-Claire.
There is/was a German conductor called Christof Prick. When conducting in Anglo Saxon countries he changed it to Perick. And no, he wasn’t actually.
déposé - let’s see! I had the police interview, but since then no news. It has disappeared into the ether.