What is an appropriate, respectful, and pleasing to the other person response to the statement "Your Japanese is very good"?

Question

The following situation: A tourist who is in Japan says "Good day" in Japanese. And it is practically the only word he knows, or maybe he knows a handful of everyday phrases, but in this example he is not yet able to form any sentences by himself.

Also in this situation he will often get a "Oh, you speak very good Japanese" as an answer to his "Good day" from a Japanese.

And yes, it seems to correspond to the character and the good customs in Japan, in general as well as in these or those special cases, to be extremely friendly.

But what is a halfway simple but just appropriate respectful answer from me in such a situation, in English and of course also in Japanese ( pls tell me in latin caracter or in pure hiragana) ?

Would perhaps something of the following be suitable?

• You are very friendly. or
• This is too much credit. or
• Unfortunately, I understand only a few words of Japanese so far.

Or what other answer would be an answer that appreciates my counterpart appropriately and pleases him ?

Answer 1

The safest and easiest response a beginner can use would be どうも (dōmo) or ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu).

_{(A tourist who knows only a few Japanese words should not try to say something more complicated than these. Of course a fluent speaker can make much wittier and longer responses.)}

Answer 2

Providing more alternatives to naruto's answer, you can follow the Japanese culture of "lowering your self" by saying:

JP:「とんでもないです。」(tondemonai desu)

EN: "It's not that good".

Followed up with:

JP:「知【し】ってる単語【たんご】も僅【わず】かしかないです。」(shitteru tango mo wazuka shika nai desu)

EN: "I only know some characters."