Redditor Serves Up Sarcasm In Reply To Condescending Compliment

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.

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."

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."

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.