How to respond when someone praises about my Japanese?


While talking with some Japanese people in an online form, someone said
日本語上手ですね！﻿ to me. I just replied そうですか, but what would be an appropriate way
to reply keeping it as less informal as possible. Another important thing is
that I believe the OP was being polite to me knowing that I am not a native
instead of actually talking about my Japanese as I can speak about it for
myself. So, I would like to know of any response more in the lines of _I'm
humbled_ or _I don't deserve_ kind.




There could be many ways of saying "I am not good at Japanese." depending on
your personal preference and context. My favorites were

> いいえ、あまり[上手]{じょうず}ではありません。 No, I am not that good at Japanese.
>
> いいえ、あまり[上手]{じょうず}じゃないです。 Ditto
>
> いいえ、まだ[下手]{へた}です。 No, (my Japanese) is still poor.

いいえ is broadly used when you get praised to express modesty.




The way to go is usually to just deny it a little.  
Something in the lines of :

> そんな事ないです。  
>  まだまだです。

