Boo hoo, I have a funny accent

I used to have this friend from Brazil and quite often when she would say things people would giggle and tell her how cute she sounded when she said certain words. They would kid with her about her accent and the way she put sentences together. About 7 years after she had been in America she was telling a story and someone mimicked her accent and she started crying. She kind of went off about how she couldn't stand to be teased anymore and that was how she spoke and it wasn't that funny, dammit! At the time I didn't understand the problem. Everyone thought it was so cute and she got so much attention for being foreign and everyone just wished that they had a great accent for goodness sakes! What were all the tears about? I get it now.