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I have been doing exercises from Nihongo so-matome n3 grammar book, when I
stumbled upon this question, and the answer seems to make no sense to me
(Nihongo so-matome n3 grammar pg. 59, ex. 14)

> 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。（＿）日本人と変わりませんね
>
> １）そのたびに ２）それにしては ３）だとしたら ４）それにしても

the correct answer is supposedly 4) but it seems to make no sense, so I must
be misunderstanding something. Doesn't it mean "He has been speaking japanese
fluently for the past 10 years. Even so he is no different from a Japanese [in
his language ability]"?
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grammar translation
それにしても日本人と変わりませんね - this sentence seems to make no sense
["He has been speaking japanese fluently for the past 10 years. ] is not quite
right. When you see this, you may have an AHA moment.

I had a comment here that was erased by someone. Please revive it, and i'll
delete it myself (after retrieving 1 sentence from the comment). Or if it's
any trouble, pls do nothing. Thanks. _____ In general, what's the rule /
convention for deleting such a comment ? ( No need to answer it -- the [big
brother knows best] approach.)

Did the OP have an AHA moment ? -------- Do you understand, now, why ４）それにしても
is the best (and compelling) answer?

> 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。（＿）日本人と変わりませんね。

The correct answer (4) isn't too compelling. I wonder how many other strings
would fit in the Blank.

What is the most fitting expression in the Blank ?

  * 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。（本当に）日本人と変わりませんね。

  * 日本語が上手なのは10年も日本にいるからなんですね。（いやー、長時間話していても）日本人と変わりませんね。

  * 日本語が上手なのは10年も日本にいるからなんですね。（いろんな表現とか発音とか）日本人と変わりませんね。

But is there a better "logical connective" in the blank than それにしても ？

* * *

A hypothetical question re: ２）それにしては

> 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。（ それにしては ） ...

What should follow after this （ それにしては ）?
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While the exclusion approach may be useful for exams, it is hardly useful for
daily life. From what knowledge I have, the phrase それにしても is used to shift
attention from one fact to another. In this case, it is not invalidating the
first sentence, but is rather making an additional comment about the other
party's ability to speak Japanese fluently.
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> 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。（＿）日本人と変わりませんね。  
>  Your Japanese is good and it's because you've been in Japan for 10 years.
> (___) you are no different from Japanese people.

I believe 3) だとしたら and 4) それにしても are both acceptable depending on the context.
If this was said to a teenager, I would certainly choose だとしたら ("If that's the
case, ..."). If I know this was a conversation between two people in their
forties, I would not choose だとしたら.

Unlike それにしては which is followed by some contrastive statement, それにしても can work
as "anyway, ...", "at any rate, ..." or even "by the way, ...". It's a word
used to break a logical link with the previous context and tell what the
speaker is feeling at the moment.

> 分かりました、明日が締切ですね。それにしても、この部屋は暑いですね。  
>  Okay, the deadline is tomorrow. By the way, this room is hot, isn't it?

Regarding this question, using それにしても means the speaker is impressed by the
other person's Japanese ability _anyway_. Ten years is a long time, but it may
not be long enough to speak like a native speaker. _Either way / The point is_
, his Japanese is really good.
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* それにしても here means: _even after taking that into account_ , _even after taking that as a given_ , _even so_ , _still_ , or something along those lines.

  * 日本語が上手なのは10年もいるからなんですね。 may be better translated as something like:

> So the reason you speak Japanese fluently is because you've been in Japan
> for as many as 10 years(, huh).

  * And 日本人と変わりませんね。 as:

> It impresses me how you are no different from a Japanese (in your language
> ability)

The kicker here is the ね at the end (a so-called "感動助詞").

The illocutionary act performed by uttering the ね-less version "日本人と変わりません。"
would be a putting forward of the proposition "You are no different from a
Japanese (in your language ability)."

As it is, however, "日本人と変わりません _ね_ 。" is rather an expression, a putting into
words, by the utterer of their being in a certain way "internally affected" by
the fact that the listener (" _you_ ") is no different from a Japanese [in
their language ability]." And that certain way in which the utterer is
"internally affected" here is by being impressed. (Hence the translation
above.)

Given these considerations, the quote in question after inserting 4)それにしても may
be rendered as follows:

> So, the reason you speak Japanese so fluently is because you've been in
> Japan for as many as 10 years. **But even after considering that** , it
> still impresses me how your Japanese is as good as native speakers'."
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