It was like one of those scenes in a comedy flick. Cringe humor. You’ve probably seen it.

Shane Denully, an American from the Bronx, was instructing his new house guest, a skinny Nigerian teenager named Precious Achiuwa, on the particulars of his new abode.

He explained the layout. The shower situation. The hot and cold knobs. Denully was talking exceptionally slowly, not knowing whether Achiuwa was stuck behind a language barrier.

“And then in the midst of all that, I said, ‘Do you understand what I’m saying?’” Denully told Sports+. “And he goes, ‘I speak English.’”