Yes—isn’t it something? It’s amazing the distinction that English-speakers draw between the meaning of “ask” and “demand.” The former is generally regarded as polite and non-agressive, the latter carrying a tone of assertiveness and authoritarianism. People almost always are more willing to respond to a question than they are to respond to a demand.
In their native language of Willardian, there probably isn’t any distinction between ‘ask’ and ‘demand’, so one can see why they might confuse the two.