Compliment (noun)
1. an expression of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration; especially : an admiring remark
2. formal and respectful recognition :honor
We should all know what a compliment is, shouldn't we? It's a word, an act that most of us grew up either receiving or doing ourselves. When your grade school teacher says "Good work!" or when your parents say "You're so smart!" When your friends say how you're the coolest person they know, or when your former supervisor recommends you to another job because you're a hard worker.
These are compliments. Compliments make you feel good. They boost your self-esteem and they're respectful words of praise.
It's amazing how this simple definition has gotten confused.
You say, "Damn girl, that's a nice a**." Do you expect a positive response?
You say, "You'd look prettier if you smiled." Do you expect them to smile just for your benefit?
You say these things and suddenly you feel some weird and misplaced sense of indignation, as if you were the one wronged, when the person you said these things to chooses not to respond to you.
"You should learn to say thank you!"
"You should learn to take a compliment..."
...Let's go back just a few words ago.
"Compliments make you feel good. They boost your self-esteem and they're respectful words of praise."
If what you said didn't make them feel good, if it didn't help boost their self esteem, if it wasn't respectful, then they have no reason to take what you said as a compliment. It's as simple as that.
They don't need to answer to you. There is no need to "learn to take a compliment" because we already know how. The problem is, you don't know how to give one.
