The modesty maxim in Japanese

Reading about this maxim made me think of a funny experience I had when studying abroad in Japan. In Japanese society it is somewhat mandated, through social constructs, that modesty reign supreme when one receives any type of compliment. If someone told you that you cooked a wonderful meal or created a beautiful painting, etc. then the typical Japanese response would be to deflect any praise and say no no, it's really nothing or something to that effect. Of course I did this on most occasions since it is culturally unacceptable to do otherwise. But, one of my friends, who was Japanese told me something that I could say when a native Japanese speaker complimented me on my use of Japanese. I must also say that she had a great sense of humor which is something that I found intriguing because hers was one that was comparable to the western culture more than that of Japanese. Anyway, she told me to say "I like to think so" when someone gave me this compliment because it will somewhat stump them because they'll never expect it and she was right. I would get the strangest glares when I would say this and the person paying the compliment would not know what to say after hearing such a statement. It was quite funny.