Is this sarcastic or sincere?

he was probably being sarcastic, which is certainly not a slappable offense...

In PC America (and other countries), you can't say that a child is stupid or subnormal or backward, you say they are "special". Maybe that is what he meant. El gringo pendejo.

"You Are Special" by by Max Lucado (Author), Sergio Martinez (Illustrator) is also what sounds like an awful typically American inspirational book.



(Amazon)

Contrex: "el gringo pendejo": exactly my thoughts haha

I guess i understand that he was being sarcastic or joking... but im still asking myself: HOW? Maybe its a line from a movie? a local joke? It does not make sense to me.

Its all curiosity... and I want to know how to use that phrase with a sarcastic tone so that i can use it too!! I asked this guy and he said... I dont know how to explain it, but dont use it, you wont be able to pull it off.

Learn that Americans are very flippant.

He was chiding you because you understood Juan, and he did not.

Forget it. You don't want to use that kind of sarcasm in conversations.

The best response would be nothing more than a smile.

I don't know how you would expect anyone else to determine if the person to whom you were speaking was being sarcastic, as no one here saw or heard him, and haven't the cues of intonation and facial expression to judge.

It is true that some people use the expression, "well, isn't that special" in a sarcastic manner, and it refers to a recurring comedy sketch on television about "the Church Lady," and in that sketch, the character is certainly being snide. At the same time, saying that someone is special can also have nothing to do with that, nor with references to people who are developmentally disabled (or, in the common parlance, retarded). Once again, not having witnessed the exchange, none of us can reasonably say whether or not sarcasm was the intent. Some people actually do say that someone else is special without intending insult. All that being said, i do suspect at least an ironic intent on the part of the speaker, but i wasn't there, so i don't know. Only you, as the one addressed at that time, can really make a reasonable judgment even if you don't understand what you take to be an idiomatic expression, and even then you might be wrong. The fact that you felt you had to ask someone else suggests that you were uncertain at that time.

As for any response from Contrex, it would help if you knew that Contrex has provided abundant evidence in these fora that he has what one might describe as a pathological contempt for or hatred of Americans. He's about the last person here whom you should trust as a source of information on Americans and their idiomatic speech.

you are special, boss...

I guess I've just been around 10 - 16 year olds too much.
I hear conversations like that all the time.
I'll stand by my assertion that he was being flippant.

What . . . ev-ver . . . !!