For most pet owners, it's a pleasure to receive compliments on their pets since they're members of the family.

The owner of the account at ガブちゃん Gabuchan (@gabrielthecorgi) lives with his corgi, Gabriel.

While walking with Gabriel at the Kyoto Imperial Palace one day, he passed a young man.

The young man must have been struck by Gabriel's cute appearance, because he turned to his owner and said, "Realistically speaking*, that's the cutest dog I've ever seen." In the brief conversation that followed, the owner learned that the man was Chinese.

The man used 現実的な genjitsu-teki na, meaning "realistic" to convey the notion of "in real life."

Overjoyed by the praise, the owner reported the incident on their Twitter account.

Gabriel seems to be beaming with pride and smiling in the photo!

In a follow-up Tweet, the owner added, "I was happy that the young man chose his words carefully and tried his best to communicate in Japanese."

His Tweet went viral, garnering more than 163,000 likes at the time of writing, eliciting comments such as:

This holds true for anyone visiting or living in a foreign country. Even if you haven't mastered the language, if your message is positive and spoken from the heart, it will usually get through.

In this case, it may have been nothing more than small talk, but the wholesome episode seems to have warmed many hearts online.