Is it an insult to mention "your work is pretty relaxing" to a workaholic Japanese? After signing up for this language exchange Website for a few days, I encountered something bizarre relating to my interaction with a Japanese. He was someone who would like to improve his Chinese and English so I sent him a friend request. Everything went smoothly at the beginning and we engaged a pleasant conversation, though I corrected him a few grammar mistakes. These mistakes were pretty common for people whose English as a second language. I never meant to show off that my English is any better than him. He reminded me of myself 15 years ago when I came to USA. I wish there was someone who was strict to me so I could learn my English in a better way. Then we added each other on FB. I left him a comment to thank him for adding me and I also mentioned he was still up because Asian time should pass midnight already. He replied and said that he slept late and got up late. I left another comment "your job is pretty relaxing then^^," without any meaning to be offensive. Then he started shouting out a whole bunch of Japanese to me. As someone who only studied Japanese for 2 years and never learned Japanese in the verbal way, I was only able to pick up a few words. So I said " what he said was too difficult for me to understand." Then he started shouting another paragraph in Japanese. This time I realized he was getting mad. He was saying I didn't have the right to correct his English when my Japanese was only at the beginning level. Although I didn't understand why were they related in any way, I felt like he felt offended for what I just said. As someone who doesn't like to create conflicts, I did apology to him immediately if he felt what I said was offensive to him and I was pretty sure there might be just misunderstanding. I sent my apology via FB and also as a message via this Website. Later on, I looked up his Japanese in the dictionary and I sorta understand he was furious because he thought I criticized his work being relaxing (though he might be a workaholic himself). Anyway, I wasn't able to get to him anymore for further clarification because he blocked me on both FB and on this Website since that incident. I just felt this incident pretty bizarre. Are Japanese guys usually these serious and cannot take other's jokes? Does he feel insulted when I mentioned "his job is pretty relaxing" or does he feel insulted when someone as a nonnative speaker of English, especially a Chinese who corrected his grammar mistakes in English?