Funny Pomelo

A taxi driver was taking us back to the hotel after dinner, and the whole time I was having a good conversation with him in Vietnamese. I was speaking my South Vietnamese and he was speaking his North Vietnamese, and I sensed we were understanding each other at least 80% of the time. He talked about wanting to go to Saigon because he bought a house there for investment and how as much as 1/3 of the populaton of North Vietnam has moved to the south. I asked him why he used the name Saigon instead of HCM city, and he started to explain to me that HCM city used to be called Saigon. How funny! Anyway, as he drove up to the front doors of the hotel, he turned to me and said, still in Vietnamese, "You are a foreigner, how come your Vietnamese is so good!?" I am wondering whether that was meant as an insult? Haha.