The personal experiences of three of the authors of this document as Au Pairs in the United States exposed some issues related to social justice and discrimination that made the participants reflect on their identity as speakers and future teachers of English. This article shares, analyzes and interprets these reflections collaboratively in search of the contributions of this intercultural exchange to the construction of the identity of the participants, and how these experiences contrast with those lived as pre-service English teachers in a public university in the southeastern region of Colombia. Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, the participants exposed situations of discrimination and inequality for not being native English speakers or for being Latin American. They analyzed them in the light of the theory on linguistic identity, raciolinguistics, and English varieties. The findings showed that the participants' negative experiences helped the participants consolidate their identity as teachers of English, allowing them to see the inequalities and injustices that exist within the English program and empowering them to propose changes within their immediate contexts in their country of origin. The article is intended to be a useful resource specifically, but not exclusively, for English teachers in training who plan to do cultural exchanges abroad but who also project themselves as English teachers.