: Re: How can I have a character introduce themselves as humble without making them seem arrogant? Two people are dating, and one of them wants to tell the other they are humble, which they genuinely

@Sims2267584

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A humble person tones down his/hers achievements. You can show this in your writing by painting a sharp contrast between what that person does and how he/she tells about it.

In the tipical dating situation, this could come out in a number of ways...

Alice: "So, what do you do for a living?"

Bob: "Ah, nothing much. Office work."

But you're already estabilished previously that Bob is a brillant manager of a company he helped create, if not the CEO.
Better still, his modesty can be called out by other characters. As dolphin_of_france states in his answer, a character is humble when other characters say so.

Alice: "So, that's about how my work day is as a pediatric surgeon. What do you do for a living?"

Bob: "Ah, nothing much."

Alice: "Which means ...?"

Bob: "I'm a manager at BigTechCorp. It's a sweet spot, but over all it's just office work, day in, day out."

Alice: "Wait, isn't BigTechCorp that famous technology multinational? You must be pretty good to work in there."

Bob: "Uh, I guess so. I mean, it's nothing compared to what you do. I don't save lives!" chuckled Bob.

A last example, this time drawn in from experience. It was evening and I was walking with my girlfriend of the time, just going back home on foot. We walk near a roundabout when we see a foodcourier, driving a scooter, slipping on the wet road. The guy looses control of the scooter and falls down. My first instinct was to jump on the roundabout, blocking traffic with my hands, to check if he was ok (luckily he was going slow, so he wasn't injured).

Later on my then girlfriend complimented on my bravery. I shrugged it off. "I just did what felt natural" I said.

Humble people, in theory, have a similar way of shrugging their good deeds.

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