I was in Gran Canaria with my American friend and I heard the staff in a restaurant speaking in Bulgarian. We were speaking with our waitress in English the whole time, until it was time to get the bill. I taught my friend how to get the bill, so she flagged down the waitress and said smetkata molya. The waitress just about fell over she had to repeat it to make sure she heard her correctly and started laughing and was so pleased. I taught my friend blagodarya as well which is very difficult for Americans to pronounce so when the waitress came back and my friend hit her with the thank you in Bulgarian (not just the easy Merci) she was so impressed she gave us some little gifts from the restaurant.

A couple years ago I brought another American friend back with me and my family to Bulgaria for a week and a half (she loved it) and learned a few phrases. When we were leaving Sofia Airport she was dropping her learned phrases as much as she could and the security officer thought she knew the language and was giving her instructions in Bulgarian. When I explained to him she only learned some phrases and she is just visiting from America, he was pretty impressed with her effort and pronunciation. Honestly I think that nothing makes a Bulgarian more unusually cheerful is when foreigners try to speak the language.