Some go further. Airport worker in Goa, India's biggest russian resort, said that I'm "too nice to be Russian".
I get mixed feelings out of these conversations. On the one hand, my learning pays off. On the other, it's like being good while others are not so good. So I get offended a bit because still I am Russian. No matter so I have American accent because I've watched so many series from Chicago and LA.
I was learning English since I was 6 yo. Thanks to my mom, I not only went to normal (and rather useless) classes at school and university (where we learnt phrases like "could you pass me the scone" and "London is the capital of Great Britain") but also I had courses of English all the way long: pre-school, during school, after school. Then at work. And then I just made English to be a part of my life: watching movies without dubbing (just so you know, all the movies shown in cinemas and on TV are hard-dubbed in Russia, not as in Finland where they just add subtitles), reading work-related articles, meeting people and writing letters etcetera.
One could only live the language in order to feel it in the bones. But if I'm learning English since I was 6 yo, I'm doing it for last 22 years. Pretty huge.
