Living abroad can be tough when you don’t speak the native language that well, but once you become fluent, you’d think you’d be in the clear. Unfortunately, you might still get some people commenting on your language skills, which in itself is pretty harmless. Unless the people “complimenting” you are actually just being condescending.
A Reddit user who goes by rand0muser21 discussed how he moved to the US for school, and as a result, became fluent in English. He gets a lot of comments, and while some people mean well, others are nothing but condescending. So he came up with a clever comeback that he finally got to use on a woman who thought she was complimenting him on his English skills.
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He’d Been Waiting A While To Use The Reply
OP Has Spent Much Of His Life In The US
English is not his first language, but he’s spent more years in the United States than he has in his native country. He speaks English just as well as people born in the US, as a result.
The user has also come to understand when people take genuine interest in his ethnic origins, and when others are being condescending or insist they might know more about his native country than he does. For the condescending people, he’d come up with a response that he got to finally use during the Thanksgiving holiday.
A woman who recently married his girlfriend’s uncle was at Thanksgiving dinner and chatted him up about where he’d moved to the US from. When she said his English was really good, he responded by returning the compliment. Things got quiet and a little awkward after that, but apparently the girlfriend’s family had a laugh about it later.
The Comment Section Absolutely Loved It
So many commenters had stories about how they or their relatives have been complimented on their English by Americans. Some were even from English-speaking countries, like Canada or Australia.
One person got to successfully pretend they didn’t need a foreign language credit because they were “fluent in Canadian.”
Some Even Offered Up Their Own Comebacks
One user explained how their aunt once had a condescending person compliment their English, and replied with “thanks, and I could help you improve yours if you’d like.”
Others Were Glad That OP Isn’t Totally Jaded
As OP explained, some people are genuinely interested in where you came from, and how there’s a difference between them and outright rude people.
