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Bilingual Backfire
- 784 statements
- 149 feature instances
- 152 referencing feature instances
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There is something of a rule in basic fiction. If a conversation between Alice and Bob about Carol and a simultaneously held conversation between either Alice or Bob with Carol comprises two different languages, the likelihood of Carol knowing the language of Alice and Bob is directly proportional to the amount of trash Alice and Bob talk about Carol, and vice versa. When two characters try Hiding Behind the Language Barrier or Insulting from Behind the Language Barrier, talking about someone else who is present in a language the third party supposedly doesn't speak, and the third party turns out to speak that language just fine, it's a Bilingual Backfire. A two-person variant of this trope is often a form of power play, where Alice insults Bob in a language she assumes he doesn't know (thus attempting to put him off-balance and subordinate to her) — only for him to deliver a fluid comeback in the language or in their common tongue (indicating that he at least understands, if not speaks the other one). Related to Bilingual Bonus and (sometimes) Obfuscating Stupidity. A Completely Unnecessary Translator may be employed to take advantage of this. Multilingual readers will realize that this is Truth in Television. See also Right Behind Me, for when the speaker wrongly depends on distance rather than dialect to leave the target of their remarks in ignorance. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_1054984c | type |
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There's a variation in the John Rain novels when Rain does a Deadly Delivery as a Korean restaurant worker, only to find the receptionist can speak some of the language because her boyfriend is Korean. Fortunately, you don't have to be Korean to work for a Korean restaurant. | |
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John Rain | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_13a13ed6 | type |
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Mach in SC2VN is a foreigner living in Korea, so this happens a lot. | |
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In Malevil, temperamental old woman, La Menou, is not pleased that another old woman, La Falvine, survived World War III and will be living with them. She proceeds to rant at Emmanuel for bringing La Falvine home; accusing her of being too old to work, gluttony because she's fat, and an incestuous relationship with her Evil Poacher son, all in their regional patois so that the "foreign" woman won't understand. La Falvine bursts into tears, argues back in patois, revealing she's a local and a distant cousin. | |
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Malevil | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_16a30d2b | type |
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In Symbiosis Bulbasaur insults Ash, Misty and Brock in front of them since he's a Pokemon and he thinks they can't understand him. He constantly accuses them of being spies or idiots until Ash gives him a piece of his mind. | |
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Symbiosis / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
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In The Witchlands, Merik and Safi's first meeting has them engage in a heated row. Merik switches to his native Nubrevnan to insult Safi. She snarls that she speaks the language, and promptly switches to Nubrevnan and proceeds to shower him with curses. | |
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The Witchlands | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_180976d7 | type |
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Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America. Calyxa is from Montreal and has a habit of delivering insults in French. This backfires when she does this to Deacon Hollingshead, a powerful figure in the theocracy that rules the country. He replies in French that he's not an idiot and will have her arrested if she tries it again. | |
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In Astonishing X-Men, Hisako is training with Wolverine and the session goes badly: | |
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Astonishing X-Men (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_19ac551d | comment |
In a rare, touching example, in X-23, Laura's martial arts tutor spends their lessons talking to her like a normal human being when not speaking English, in direct contrast to his superior's wishes. After this goes on for some time, his superior demonstrates he also knows the language the instructor is using and forces Laura to kill him. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_1bda074e | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_1bda074e | comment |
In Maus, this happens on a date between Anja and Vladek; Anja is speaking to a mutual friend in English about what she thinks of Vladek, not knowing that he also speaks English. This is a positive example, though, since she likes him. | |
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Maus (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_1bdeba5a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_1bdeba5a | comment |
X-Men: In Astonishing X-Men, Hisako is training with Wolverine and the session goes badly: In Uncanny X-Men #118, Wolverine's fluency in Japanese is first revealed in a similar case. The team is stranded in Japan, there is some huge disaster going on, and there is a newspaper left in there telling precisely the bad things going on. Everybody is surprised that Wolverine (who was still a bag of surprises) understood Japanese. "You Didn't Ask, Bub". In X-Men/Alpha Flight #1, Northstar, who's Québecois, tells Rogue to leave him alone in French. She at first replies in English, then adds, in French: "By the way, sugar, we speak French ourselves in the Mississippi Bayou Country. Can't crowd me out that way." They develop something of an Odd Friendship after that. There have been at least two other times where Northstar's teammates caught him mouthing off in French. Zigzagged. Jubilee doesn't speak Japanese, at all. But when she's accidentally transported to Japan after she and Wolverine had an encounter with Mojo, she ends up in a Japanese jail. Two of the women there say, in their native tongue, "Let's beat her up and take her stuff." They suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of Jubilee's plasma fireworks, as she tells them, in English, "I know what that means in any language." |
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X-Men (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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Life Is Strange 2: In Episode 4, Sean (a mixed-race, bilingual American boy whose father was originally from Mexico) is accosted by a pair of racist men who demand that he disparage himself in Spanish for their entertainment. The player can choose to have Sean make a Your Mom joke while pretending to comply. In a Downplayed example of this trope, the guys really don't speak Spanish, but they do know enough basic vocabulary to make out "madre" and figure the rest out from context, which goes down about as well as you'd expect. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_1e2a59b0 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
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In Blood Red Sky, the hijackers (whose true motives are never revealed) plan to blow up the plane over London and frame Middle Eastern Terrorists for it, and to that end, they grab an Arab passenger, Farid, and force him to read into a microphone a message in Arabic taking credit. When he does so, he ends it by saying that he was coerced into reading the message. The hijackers' leader Berg then shoots a hostage and tells Farid, in perfect Arabic, to read it correctly. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_1f29b520 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
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Variation: in The 13th Warrior, the Norsemen constantly talk about Ahmed in his presence, because he doesn't know their language. This trope comes into play when he becomes fluent merely from observing them, just in time to give a witty response after they've insulted his mother. On the other hand, Ahmed is a scholar who already knows at least four languages, and it's implied he had a month or two of observing in which to learn, gradually picking up a word here and a phrase there. Early on, he communicates with a Norseman using Latin. | |
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The 13th Warrior | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_2191a786 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
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Invoked and parodied the 90s comedy-parody Fatal Instinct: Lana and her lover meet in a park to plan a murder. Since there's an old black guy sitting on the next bench, they carry out their conversation in Yiddish. When the old man offers some advice, Lana gawps at him and asks "You speak Yiddish?!" He replies "No, but I can read the subtitles." | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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There's a CSI: NY tie-in novel where Lindsay and Stella are processing a scene at a bakery, and the owner uses a derogatory Italian term for a female cop. What he doesn't realize is that Stella speaks some Italian, and though she's rusty, she knows exactly what he's saying. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_2232f584 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
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Played with in The Shadow pulp novel "The Golden Pagoda". At one point, the Chinese crimelord Li Hoang personally executes the guard who not only failed to keep Harry Vincent prisoner, but begged for mercy. He wasn't begging for mercy, he was reporting events accurately and almost screwed up The Shadow's plan. "Li Hoang" was an impostor, who didn't speak a word of Chinese. The Shadow does, knew exactly what the guard was saying, and realized what the real situation was. Similarly in "The Romanoff Jewels", Ivan Motkin and his thugs have Lamont Cranston or whom they think is Lamont Cranston, actually The Shadow in Cranston's guise captured and discuss murdering him in Russian. They don't realize that he speaks Russian fluently and catches on to the peril and makes moves to escape. |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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The Monuments Men: The Allies capture a group of Germans who were transporting stolen art to Germany. The German-American refugee soldier Epstein quietly listens on as the Germans' captain and his XO (who switched uniforms before being captured) talk about where they took it. Then Epstein walks up, and in fluent German promises the captain that he'll give Hitler his regards when they take Berlin. | |
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This happens at King Fulrach's formal dinner in the first book of The Belgariad. Silk and Garion insult the Earl of Seline in the Drasnian sign language, in which the Earl turns out to be fluent. Silk is aware of this, however, and the Earl understood that Silk is just having a laugh at Garion's expense. | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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I Ain't a Doll, This Ain't a Dollhouse: In chapter 5, Giorno and Mista try to have a private conversation in Italian about Giorno's odd behavior to Josuke, with Giorno confirming that he has a sense of familiarity and doesn't want to kill him. Both of them are overheard by Joseph Joestar, who knows enough Italian thanks to overhearing his wife Suzi Q and his mother Lisa Lisa gossiping in the same tongue. The conversation further Joseph's suspicion that Giorno is the son of DIO and his grandmother Johanna. | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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A version in The Namesake. When a character talks to her French friend in... French, it triggers her mother-in-law's (correct) suspicions that there's more to the relationship. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_261c8d3f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
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The Simpsons: Bart and Lisa try to have a private conversation in Pig Latin. Marge mentions that she was using it since before they were born. In another episode, a group of Chinese government officials were discussing in their native tongue whether Homer's supposed knowledge of nuclear power would be worth the expenses of all the food he would eat. Homer interrupts them, proclaiming that "[he] understand[s] food talk in any language." |
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Dominic Deegan: Luna discovers that while Hobgoblins can't speak English, they can fully understand it. As you can see. Also happens before that, when Stonewater's group arrives to the Barthis benefit concert and it turns out that Dominic can speak Orcish. |
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Kevin & Kell: I can speak feline too, you idiots. | |
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Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves: Searching for Rebel spy Scarlet Hark, Han Solo pretends that Scarlet's breakfast delivery order is his own, so he can get her address off the label, and is pushy about it to the Twi'lek restauranteur. She tells the cook he's a "nerf's behind" in her own language, then apologizes for the delay. Han is of course much more familiar with Twi'lek than his disguise as an Imperial officer would suggest, and he repeats the phrase in Basic, but in a friendly manner to apologize for his ruse. | |
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In the Miraculous Ladybug fanfic Lila and the Anger Management Class, Lila makes a comment in Italian before accepting... Then notices that Marinette is giving her a weird look, making her realize that "of course, the aspiring fashion designer with an Italian grandmother could understand Italian" and she now knows her relationship with her parents. | |
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In The Love Bug, Tennessee speaks to Mr. Wu in Chinese and translates back to Jim Douglas. When Jim discovers that he can't pay the damages, the Judge orders the car sold. Tennessee explains to Mr. Wu that the car is Herbie, at which point, Mr. Wu says he wants the car himself. At that point, Jim (a bit angry) snaps that Mr. Wu can get the car, but has to allow him to drive Herbie in the El Dorado race. Mr. Wu gets the winnings, but Douglas gets to buy back Herbie for a dollar. This prompts Mr. Wu to say loudly in English, "Now you speak my language!" It's a Double Entendre coupled with Rule of Funny, which the entire movie runs on. | |
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In The World Is Not Enough, James Bond is impersonating a Russian nuclear expert, Mikhail Arkov. Dr. Christmas Jones suspects something wrong with "Dr. Arkov" and tests him: | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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Used in the Justice League episode "Maid of Honor": | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
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In Lords of the Bow, Chen Yi provides transport to Khasar, Temuge, and Ho Sa. Chen Yi puts up a pretense of only speaking Chinese, but when they get to his house and the travellers begin discussing how to deal with him, he decides to reveal that he also speaks decent Mongolian. | |
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Conqueror | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_310d6df7 | comment |
Stand Still, Stay Silent: When a man turns out to to be living in what's left of the Hotakainen's destroyed village, Sigrun starts speculating about the reasons the man would have to live in such a place out loud, feeling comfortable doing so within earshot of him due to speaking only Norwegian and currently being in Finland. The man helpfully explains the reason of his presence in Norwegian. | |
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Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_35af2104 | comment |
In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes notices an Uberwaldean guard who claims not to speak Morporkian watching him and realizes that he must understand Morporkian after all. Just to double-check, he tells his interpreter to tell the soldier that he has a fly on his nose, and sees his hand start to move toward his nose before he catches himself. | |
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The Fifth Elephant | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_3913e40 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3913e40 | comment |
A similar inversion occurs in Revenge of the Nerds II: The Lambdas end up in a Florida swamp where they are seemingly surrounded by a bunch of Seminoles in full tribal gear. Poindexter stands up and defiantly yells something in a language no one else understood. he then tells the other Lambdas he thinks those are fake Seminoles: | |
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Revenge of the Nerds | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3913e40 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3afb0bd2 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3afb0bd2 | comment |
In X-Men/Alpha Flight #1, Northstar, who's Québecois, tells Rogue to leave him alone in French. She at first replies in English, then adds, in French: "By the way, sugar, we speak French ourselves in the Mississippi Bayou Country. Can't crowd me out that way." They develop something of an Odd Friendship after that. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_3afb0bd2 | featureConfidence |
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Alpha Flight (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3afb0bd2 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3b34143f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3b34143f | comment |
The Bulgarian Minister of Magic in Harry Potter does this just to humiliate Fudge. Apparently Fudge's sign language was funny. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3b34143f | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_3b34143f | featureConfidence |
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Harry Potter | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3b34143f | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3ccfa555 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3ccfa555 | comment |
Jean Armstrong of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations mostly uses Gratuitous French. Partway through one cross-examination, however, he shouts, "Por favor!" The Judge responds: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3ccfa555 | featureApplicability |
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_3ccfa555 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_41dc2f4b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_41dc2f4b | comment |
In the musical of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mrs Meers believes that the two Asian brothers working for her can't speak any English. Thus, she has no problem berating them in English and, at one point, mocking them by saying how she has no plan to actually help them get their mother from Hong Kong to America (which was the only reason they were helping her for). The brothers make it clear that they think she's an idiot, and end up having no problem turning her in to the police at the end, with one of the brothers telling her in English "I speak better English than you speak Chinese!" | |
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ThoroughlyModernMillie | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_41dc2f4b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_44e0b783 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_44e0b783 | comment |
Garfield: Liz reveals she can understand Garfield and Odie with this trope, calling decades of comics into question. Downplayed as she never meows or barks. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_44e0b783 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_44e0b783 | featureConfidence |
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Garfield (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_44e0b783 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_468bebb0 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_468bebb0 | comment |
Discworld: Jingo: Unseen University awarded visiting Klatchian Prince Kufurah a "Doctorum Adamus Cum Flabello Dulci", Doctor of Sweet Fanny Adamsnote which may require some additional translation for US readers; it's a UKism roughly equivalent to "Jack Shit". It's made clear that the visitors are quite as learned in Latatian as the Ankhian scholars. Later, the Klatchians show themselves to be smarter. When the Prince meets with Lord Rust he first introduces a local proverb in Klatchian, which actually is just "Can you understand me?" When Rust's translator can't figure it out (Rust had chosen an interpreter who could read Klatchian fluently, but couldn't speak it), he starts with the insults, again pretending they are proverbs. "As we say in Klatch, I can't believe this man"." In Unseen Academicals, a dwarf shopkeeper pretends not to speak Morporkian and amuses himself by insulting his customers in Dwarfish. At least, until Nutt calls him out on this behavior in letter-perfect Dwarfish. In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes notices an Uberwaldean guard who claims not to speak Morporkian watching him and realizes that he must understand Morporkian after all. Just to double-check, he tells his interpreter to tell the soldier that he has a fly on his nose, and sees his hand start to move toward his nose before he catches himself. In Making Money, Vetinari tells Moist "Pas devant le gendarme" and Detritus says helpfully, "Dat mean no talkin' in front of me." Unusual, because (as a troll in a temperate climate) Detritus is generally considered a bit slow. That said, it's implied (or out-and-out stated) several places that he's Obfuscating Stupidity and is generally much more clever than he lets on. (In this case, it's likely more that Detritus is "street smart" and knows Vetinari more than he actually understands "Quirmian.") Alternatively, the Watch novels also make it clear that in a multilingual city with over a million people, policemen are capable of becoming functionally fluent in a lot of commonly spoken languages, as a matter of practical necessity. Commander Vimes, for instance, can communicate, at a street-argot level, in both Trollish and Dwarfish. If a Troll can pick up one human language, why not two? |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_468bebb0 | featureConfidence |
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Discworld | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_468bebb0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_48e3c003 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_48e3c003 | comment |
In 21st Century Fox Jack is seeing a North Korean factory that his employers want to buy and some Russians are discussing how the hover tanks being displayed are based on their country's stolen designs and how they can't let the Westerners get their hands on them. One asks the other if it's safe to discuss this with the American fox nearby and the other tells him not to worry as he hacked Jack's translator. Then Jack mentions that he fixed it. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_48e3c003 | featureConfidence |
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21st Century Fox (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_48e3c003 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4a9ecddc | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4a9ecddc | comment |
In I, Claudius (the novel), the young Claudius overhears Augustus and Athenodorus talking about him in Greek. The following ensues: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4a9ecddc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4a9ecddc | featureConfidence |
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I, Claudius | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4a9ecddc | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4b7a599c | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4b7a599c | comment |
In the PC adventure game The Last Express, Robert Cath speaks English, French, and German, and can understand when two gossiping ladies switch their conversation to French so that they can talk about him when he's in the room. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4b7a599c | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_4b7a599c | featureConfidence |
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The Last Express (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4b7a599c | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4c780285 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4c780285 | comment |
In Mary Stewart's The Merlin Trilogy, the title character is captured by some bandits who are discussing in their language what to do with him, thinking he doesn't understand. They'd been trying to start a fire and having no luck, because it'd been raining all day and the wood was soaked. When Merlin finally let them know he spoke their language, all he said was, "Stand away from the fire." Then he showed them who he was and what he could do to them by igniting a massive fire with a glance. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4c780285 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_4c780285 | featureConfidence |
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The Merlin Trilogy | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4c780285 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4e5b6428 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4e5b6428 | comment |
In Making Money, Vetinari tells Moist "Pas devant le gendarme" and Detritus says helpfully, "Dat mean no talkin' in front of me." Unusual, because (as a troll in a temperate climate) Detritus is generally considered a bit slow. That said, it's implied (or out-and-out stated) several places that he's Obfuscating Stupidity and is generally much more clever than he lets on. (In this case, it's likely more that Detritus is "street smart" and knows Vetinari more than he actually understands "Quirmian.") Alternatively, the Watch novels also make it clear that in a multilingual city with over a million people, policemen are capable of becoming functionally fluent in a lot of commonly spoken languages, as a matter of practical necessity. Commander Vimes, for instance, can communicate, at a street-argot level, in both Trollish and Dwarfish. If a Troll can pick up one human language, why not two? | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4e5b6428 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_4e5b6428 | featureConfidence |
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Making Money | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4e5b6428 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4f7dff22 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4f7dff22 | comment |
In the Relativity story "August Moon", the titular villain is a powerful telepath. In order to prevent him reading their minds and knowing their every move, the heroes decide to do all their thinking in Portuguese. Thanks to this trope, it doesn't work out so well. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4f7dff22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4f7dff22 | featureConfidence |
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Relativity | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_4f7dff22 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_52ad9d80 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_52ad9d80 | comment |
In the third Riddick movie, Santana tries to insult Dahl in Spanish. She immediately beats his face in when she hears it. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_52ad9d80 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_52ad9d80 | featureConfidence |
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Riddick | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_52ad9d80 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_55868d41 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_55868d41 | comment |
In Frisky Dingo, ancient Chinese sweatshop worker Old Spice is eventually revealed to speak English after entire episodes of only communicating in Chinese and having Xander Crews (who knew he spoke English) translate for him. This only came to light after Killface insulted Old Spice's "car" (Crews misheard Old Spice, who was actually talking about his wife). | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_55868d41 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_55868d41 | featureConfidence |
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Frisky Dingo | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_55868d41 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5657d827 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5657d827 | comment |
In Tomb Raider: Legend, after Lara saves two Kazakhs who were being held at gunpoint by one of Rutland's mercenaries, she demands to know where the command center of the military base they're protecting is. The Kazakhs are hesitant to give her the information, and revert to their native language, Russian, to argue. They eventually comply and, in English, tell her the location and code she needs. Lara mocks them by responding in Russian as well, thanking them for their aide. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5657d827 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5657d827 | featureConfidence |
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Tomb Raider: Legend (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5657d827 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5755b96a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5755b96a | comment |
At one point in The Order of the Stick, the Order is facing a dragon while Vaarsuvius has been turned into a lizard from a previous encounter. Vaarsuvius laments their own present uselessness in the encounter to themself, and the dragon empathizes in Lizard. One of the few spells Vaarsuvius can still use as a lizard is Suggestion, which requires a common language between caster and target... | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
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The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5755b96a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_57a3683f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_57a3683f | comment |
Not Always Right has a lot of examples along this trope: These customers didn't think the staff spoke Spanish. A similar entry with customers who insulted an employee in Mandarin without knowing that she spoke the language. And it's happened in Spanish too. And this one learns that if you speak about your master plan to steal candy, don't do it when someone can overhear, no matter which language you're speaking. This lady also thought it would work. Children can sometimes be excused when they insult people in a language they don't think the insulted person understands. If they apologise. A particularly amusing one: That other nationality is so racist! And can't possibly understand what I say... When someone raises the possibility the shopowner speaks your language, listen. Invoked in this story: the girl deliberately says something rude in French class to prove that she's the only one to actually learn the language. After being mocked in Mandarin Chinese for using a fork instead of chopsticks, this woman explains in the same that her dominant hand is injured and her off hand is too clumsy for chopsticks. One of the bullies apologizes for being rude and making assumptions, but the other mentally shuts down and refuses to acknowledge her at all, because she is too racist to accept that a white woman can learn to speak Mandarin. A Dutch woman who inexplicably believes people shouldn't be allowed to speak English in the Netherlands and is berating a shop clerk for allowing it to happen, until the actual target asks her, in Dutch, what she expects him to do about it. Assuming people in France don't speak English is dumb. Assuming that out of an entire busload of people, nobody except you speaks English is really dumb. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_57a3683f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_57a3683f | featureConfidence |
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Not Always Right (Website) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_57a3683f | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58d80a4a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58d80a4a | comment |
Jingo: Unseen University awarded visiting Klatchian Prince Kufurah a "Doctorum Adamus Cum Flabello Dulci", Doctor of Sweet Fanny Adamsnote which may require some additional translation for US readers; it's a UKism roughly equivalent to "Jack Shit". It's made clear that the visitors are quite as learned in Latatian as the Ankhian scholars. Later, the Klatchians show themselves to be smarter. When the Prince meets with Lord Rust he first introduces a local proverb in Klatchian, which actually is just "Can you understand me?" When Rust's translator can't figure it out (Rust had chosen an interpreter who could read Klatchian fluently, but couldn't speak it), he starts with the insults, again pretending they are proverbs. "As we say in Klatch, I can't believe this man"." |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_58d80a4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58d80a4a | featureConfidence |
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Jingo | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58d80a4a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58e80a40 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58e80a40 | comment |
Paradigm Shift: A Triad gangster is under police guard in hospital after coming off worst in a shoot-out, and refusing to say a word in any language but Mandarin to stall for time. He rapidly discovers that this isn't working as well as he'd hoped after he calls Detective McAllister a whore, only for Detective Stuart (who was previously established as growing up in Hong Kong) to chide him for his attitude in the same language. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58e80a40 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_58e80a40 | featureConfidence |
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Paradigm Shift (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_58e80a40 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5a40a94f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5a40a94f | comment |
Hakuya's introduction in Kokuhaku Game is this, complete with physical retaliation. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5a40a94f | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5a40a94f | featureConfidence |
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Kokuhaku Game (Manga) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5a40a94f | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5b6bf864 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5b6bf864 | comment |
In Uncanny X-Men #118, Wolverine's fluency in Japanese is first revealed in a similar case. The team is stranded in Japan, there is some huge disaster going on, and there is a newspaper left in there telling precisely the bad things going on. Everybody is surprised that Wolverine (who was still a bag of surprises) understood Japanese. "You Didn't Ask, Bub". | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5b6bf864 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5b6bf864 | featureConfidence |
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Uncanny X-Men (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5b6bf864 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5c3fe53d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5c3fe53d | comment |
In The Alzheimer's Case: Vincke and Verstuyft, using Dutch, agree that main character Ledda (who they think only understands French) looks like "he's spent two years lying face-down on the rail tracks." Ledda later bids them farewell with a deadpan: "I'm going to spend two more years lying face-down on the rail tracks." | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5c3fe53d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5c3fe53d | featureConfidence |
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The Alzheimer's Case | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5c3fe53d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d21fab8 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d21fab8 | comment |
Wolf Hall has an awkward dinner party where the Holy Roman Emperor's new ambassador switches to French to speculate about Thomas Cromwell's sketchy origins, not knowing that those origins include becoming a polyglot during twelve years in Europe. Cromwell replies that he's not so sure himself, but if they want to talk about him they should try Greek. He also surprises Mark Smeaton by reminding him of unsavory gossip Smeaton passed while speaking Flemish (although that wasn't intentional as Cromwell had been eavesdropping at the time). | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5d21fab8 | featureConfidence |
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Wolf Hall | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d21fab8 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d63cc8 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d63cc8 | comment |
Inglourious Basterds: The Basterds' and Frau von Hammersmark's plan of infiltrating the theater involves them speaking Italian as the Germans do not know the accents (and they wouldn't have to repeat the bar incident), but one of the people they meet is Hans Landa, who knows Italian and is pretty much able to confirm his suspicions about them by their atrocious accents. Earlier in the film, Landa is cautious about this trope but finds that he doesn't need to be concerned because the family under the floor didn't react to any of the English he and Pierre La Padite spoke. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5d63cc8 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_5d63cc8 | featureConfidence |
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Inglourious Basterds | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_5d63cc8 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6209177d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6209177d | comment |
In one of the Perry Mason novels, Perry is being arrested. He advises Della, in legal terminology, to track down a particular witness. When she does, she finds a note saying "Just because a police officer has a cauliflower ear, doesn't mean he didn't take debate in high school." | |
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Perry Mason (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6209177d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_63409895 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_63409895 | comment |
In Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, Wormwood the raven accidentally reveals the location of a counterspell book Sofia was looking for, unaware that she was recently granted the ability to understand and speak to animals. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_63409895 | featureApplicability |
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Sofia the First | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_63409895 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_638d8d9c | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_638d8d9c | comment |
In Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Bouchard casually abuses Ward in French... until during a meeting with their respective supervisors, Ward reveals that he speaks excellent French and even lived in Paris for a while. | |
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Bon Cop, Bad Cop | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_638d8d9c | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6443309b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6443309b | comment |
In The General Series, Raj Whitehall is already fluent in several languages and knows a bit of others. This comes in handy during his campaigns when he's dealing with various foreign groups and they assume he doesn't understand what they're saying. Among his wife's spies, the former slaves from distant countries also use this to their advantage by not letting on how many languages they speak. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_6443309b | featureConfidence |
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The General Series | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6443309b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_660a8ba0 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_660a8ba0 | comment |
In Unseen Academicals, a dwarf shopkeeper pretends not to speak Morporkian and amuses himself by insulting his customers in Dwarfish. At least, until Nutt calls him out on this behavior in letter-perfect Dwarfish. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_660a8ba0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_660a8ba0 | featureConfidence |
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Unseen Academicals | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_660a8ba0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ae6b4c7 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ae6b4c7 | comment |
In Pacific Rim, the two main characters meet this way. | |
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1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ae6b4c7 | featureConfidence |
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Pacific Rim | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ae6b4c7 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6c6852ca | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6c6852ca | comment |
Yakuza 6; the leader of the Chinese Saio Triad, Big Lo, says something to one of his underlings in Chinese. Yuta, one of the Hiroshima yakuza allied with Kiryu, learned Chinese as a kid and explains to the others what they were talking about: that there's a world-shattering secret in Onomichi that Kiryu must not learn about, which of course sets him on the path to find out what that is. Though given that Lo knows damn well Yuta is his Spare to the Throne and he's been gunning for revenge against the men who killed his other son Jimmy, it might have been intentional on his part. A flashback in which Big Lo and his son Jimmy are negotiating with the Iwami family has the former converse in Chinese about them refusing the deal, only for Tsuneo Iwami to reveal that he understands Chinese. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_6c6852ca | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_6c6852ca | featureConfidence |
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Yakuza 6 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6c6852ca | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ca8eee5 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ca8eee5 | comment |
Bayley for a while was talked down upon by the rest of Damage CTRL (IYO SKY, Asuka and Kairi Sane) and whenever the three of them did, they always did it in Japanese to make sure Bayley wouldn't catch them. However... when Bayley was choosing her opponent for WrestleMania and the rest of Damage CTRL was laughing at her, Bayley then turns to the 3 and asks if they are done laughing before saying "watashi wakaru yo" which is "I understand" in Japanese, which shocked the other three revealing she has overheard and picked up on Japanese lingo. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ca8eee5 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_6ca8eee5 | featureConfidence |
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Bayley (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_6ca8eee5 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7041cf12 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7041cf12 | comment |
Inverted in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: during an exchange party with a sister school from France, one of the guest students gives a Break Them by Talking speech in French to Shirogane as part of a Secret Test of Character. He manages to pass by looking unaffected and making agreeable grunts… except Shirogane is desperately trying to hide that he’s the only one around who doesn’t speak French. Everyone else is amazed by Shirogane’s apparently incredible Nerves of Steel, not realizing that he actually couldn’t understand a word of the whole speech. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_70db1736 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_70db1736 | comment |
German comic Lula und Yankee: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_70db1736 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_70db1736 | featureConfidence |
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LulaUndYankee | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_70db1736 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_76580c92 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_76580c92 | comment |
In the Ménage à 3 strip for January 20, 2011 (marginally NSFW), Sandra is unconcerned about discussing her private life with Matt because she assumes that Senna, who is from Brazil, speaks "Brazilianese". She does, plus four other languages including English. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_76580c92 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_76580c92 | featureConfidence |
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Ménage à 3 (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_76580c92 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_79ae7521 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_79ae7521 | comment |
The Librarian in The Librarian films usually turns out to know the language. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_79ae7521 | featureApplicability |
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The Librarian | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_79ae7521 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7aaf9e41 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7aaf9e41 | comment |
In Batman: Bane of the Demon, Ra's Al-Ghul will converse with Talia Al-Ghul in various languages such as Urdu and Farsi when in front of Bane. As it turns out, Bane is indeed smart enough to understand what they're saying. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_7aaf9e41 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7ad0ade | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7ad0ade | comment |
In George of the Jungle, one of the guides makes it very clear that the other guides only speak Swahili. Until it eventually comes to light that they're all completely fluent in English. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7ad0ade | featureApplicability |
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George of the Jungle | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7ad0ade | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7b429ebd | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7b429ebd | comment |
In Saints Row 2, when Dane Vogel meets Kazuo Akuji in order to renew the protection deal between Ultor Corp and the Ronin, Akuji clearly demonstrates that he is not interested in treating Ultor as equal partners by snapping at Vogel something to the effect of "Why should I even care about anything you say?" in Japanese. Unimpressed, Vogel calmly replies (albeit in English) that Kazuo should care because Ultor is a giant MegaCorp that formally employs his son Shogo (who was in charge of the Ronin until Akuji took over in person). | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_7b429ebd | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7bb6994d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7bb6994d | comment |
In Mortal Kombat vs Marvel Universe, Mey is a Red Lotus plant, sent by Liu Kang and Kitana to keep an eye on Johnny Cage. Johnny figures out that she was sent by the former revenants due to her speaking Edenian whenever she would report in to her superiors, which makes it even more funny that Johnny himself speaks Edenian, but decides to keep Mey around due to her being good at her job. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7bb6994d | featureApplicability |
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Mortal Kombat vs Marvel Universe (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7bb6994d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7c48915b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7c48915b | comment |
Gunnerkrigg Court: On this page, Gamma mutters to herself in Polish, calling Antimony and Kat stupid. Annie replies in Polish, "That wasn't very nice." Averted in a later scene where we learn that Gamma does not understand English, and depends on her telepathic bond with Zimmy for interpretation... and Zimmy is being less than honest in her translations. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_7c48915b | featureApplicability |
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Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7c48915b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7fc78282 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7fc78282 | comment |
In The Lord of the Rings, this comes up at the hobbits' first encounter with elves, and Frodo reveals that he speaks High-Elvish: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7fc78282 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_7fc78282 | featureConfidence |
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The Lord of the Rings | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_7fc78282 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_81a005a3 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_81a005a3 | comment |
In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a depressed Puss tries to get out of talking with a super-excitable dog by grumbling "No hablo ingles". The dog then continues the conversation in fluent Spanish. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_81a005a3 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_81a005a3 | featureConfidence |
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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_81a005a3 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8571c128 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8571c128 | comment |
In episode 2 of Bang Brave Bang Bravern!, some of the German personnel have a quiet word amongst themselves in their native language speculating that Bravern's appearance might be a trick by the Americans, only for Bravern to (loudly) proclaim in German that everyone must be united against the Deathdrives. | |
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Bang Brave Bang Bravern! | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8571c128 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_87a6d933 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_87a6d933 | comment |
Rang De Basanti: Unsurprisingly given her academic field of interest (The Raj), the English Sue is fluent in Hindi. However, DJ assumes that the white girl can only understand English and somewhat aggressively flirts with her in Punjabi-tinged Hindi, while providing "translations" (the rest of their friend group, who know, are visibly barely able to contain their laughter). Sue doesn't reveal that she speaks Hindi till the gang visit DJ's home, after letting DJ tell his mother that she is his new wife, when she greets her in Hindi to DJ's shock and everyone else's amusement. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_87a6d933 | featureConfidence |
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Rang De Basanti | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_87a6d933 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a34d829 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a34d829 | comment |
Taking Lives has one as well. Two of the characters consistently talk in another language, often insulting Angelina's character in some manner. If one pays attention, one can see her reacting early on. Eventually, she responds in the same language, leading to a reaction that you may or may not consider "classic" for this particular trope. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_8a34d829 | featureConfidence |
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Taking Lives | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a34d829 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a9c911d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a9c911d | comment |
Invoked on purpose in My Stupid Life, an autobiography comic by Mitch Clem, the creator of Nothing Nice to Say. A tattoo artist he's friends with mentions that she's getting a tattoo that's the Spanish word for "The Farting Woman", just so she can pretend she was told it meant "The Smiling Girl", and then break down crying when people correct her. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a9c911d | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_8a9c911d | featureConfidence |
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Nothing Nice to Say (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8a9c911d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8b04f9c7 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8b04f9c7 | comment |
Bite Me!: Luther's habit of insulting people in High German backfires, when it turns out Claire (of all people) speaks the language. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8b04f9c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8b04f9c7 | featureConfidence |
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Bite Me! / Web Comic | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8b04f9c7 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba43df | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba43df | comment |
In John Wick, during their first meeting Iosef attempts to disguise an insult to the title character by speaking in Russian, calling him a bitch. John responds in Russian that he's no one's bitch, shocking Iosef. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba43df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba43df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
John Wick | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba43df | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba4613a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba4613a | comment |
In the Death Note AU Those Who Stand for Nothing Fall for Anything L and his Childhood Friend B are at a party and begin to insult L's ex-boyfriend, Light Yagami ( the Prime Minister of Japan) while he's standing right there with them because Light has led L to believe he doesn't speak a word of English. Later when he gets L alone Light casually informs him "I speak English, by the way." | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba4613a | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba4613a | featureConfidence |
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Death Note (Manga) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8ba4613a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8baae351 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8baae351 | comment |
Played for laughs in the Disney Movie McFarland, USA: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8baae351 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8baae351 | featureConfidence |
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McFarland, USA | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_8baae351 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9068877a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9068877a | comment |
Lopez of Red vs. Blue often delivers extremely sarcastic asides in (bad) Spanish, as he knows no one speaks it. Then in Season 12, he finally finds someone who does: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9068877a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9068877a | featureConfidence |
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Red vs. Blue (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9068877a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_91b968af | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_91b968af | comment |
In The Doll, Stanislaw's love interest discusses her love affair with her friend in English, unaware that Stanislaw, who is in the same room, has been taking English lessons to impress her. Later on, the heartbroken Stanislaw wonders if he maybe misunderstood something from their conversation. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_91b968af | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_91b968af | featureConfidence |
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The Doll | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_91b968af | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_93cf6987 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_93cf6987 | comment |
Averted in the logical way in Khaos Komix: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_93cf6987 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_93cf6987 | featureConfidence |
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Khaos Komix (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_93cf6987 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_961ae24f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_961ae24f | comment |
In Kimi No Na Iowa, after Gonzalez Team experience the Internal Reveal that Ayaka is Japanese-American, O'Bannon storms off while throwing a few insults in Irish. Ayaka promptly speaks up in that very language, perfectly enunciated, having learnt from her swaps with Uileag. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_961ae24f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_961ae24f | featureConfidence |
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Kimi No Na Iowa (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_961ae24f | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9733cbb6 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9733cbb6 | comment |
In Lifeboat, Willi, the U-boat captain stuck on a lifeboat with a bunch of Americans, pretends he doesn't speak English—until a storm comes and he starts barking orders in perfect English. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9733cbb6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9733cbb6 | featureConfidence |
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Lifeboat | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9733cbb6 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_97931756 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_97931756 | comment |
Playing on a similar scene from the film Rush Hour, the first episode of Jackie Chan Adventures has newcomer Jade not speaking English at first, but later it turns out she knows perfect English to the surprise of Jackie. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_97931756 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_97931756 | featureConfidence |
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Rush Hour | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_97931756 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99213972 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99213972 | comment |
In Maid in Manhattan, Christopher Marshall and Marissa are gossiped about by two elderly Frenchwomen while sharing the elevator with them. He then pulls this trope by addressing them in French, much to their dismay—they call him a "pig" even though he has politely invited them to join them for a walk. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99213972 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_99213972 | featureConfidence |
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Maid in Manhattan | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99213972 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99c003af | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99c003af | comment |
In The Boondocks' episode "The Red Ball", Huey and the other residents of Woodcrest are pitted against a team from China in a high stakes kickball game. The Chinese team captain Ming tells Huey that if she loses she might be sent to a labor camp. This manages to throw off his game until the captain's teammates talk to each other about the lie and insult his playing. Anyone with any knowledge of Huey's interests wouldn't be too surprised to know he understands Chinese. Cue Huey responding in kind, then beating the shit out of the Chinese team with the kickball. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99c003af | featureApplicability |
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The Boondocks | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_99c003af | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d41fc3b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d41fc3b | comment |
In Despicable Me, Gru is trying to flatter the adoption agency lady in order to get some kids for his evil plan. At one point he tells her, in a seductive voice, that she has a face como un burro*like a (male) donkey. She later looks it up in a translation dictionary, and she is not happy. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d41fc3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d41fc3b | featureConfidence |
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Despicable Me | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d41fc3b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d47a2a2 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
Daenerys Targaryen of A Song of Ice and Fire pretends to not understand the language when she is in the Slaver's Bay cities and is therefore underestimated by the native speakers. The irony is that said native language is Valyrian... which did not originate from the Slaver's Bay, but from, well, Valyria, the ancestral homeland of House Targaryen. | |
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A Song of Ice and Fire | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_9d47a2a2 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a150c649 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a150c649 | comment |
In The Westerosi's second book, Jade has a heated discussion about the Others with Daenerys in the language of the Seven Kingdoms. An irritated Jorah Mormont denounces Jade in Essosi Valyrian. Unfortunately, Jade carries handy Translator Microbes, and she chides him in the same dialect. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a150c649 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_a150c649 | featureConfidence |
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The Westerosi (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a150c649 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a1b9a8bb | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a1b9a8bb | comment |
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Peter goes to the local deli for an afternoon snack and chats with the owner Mr. Delmar who asks him how Aunt May is doing. Delmar turns to the cook and tells him in Spanish that Aunt May is a gorgeous Italian woman. Peter proceeds to ask Delmar in Spanish how his daughter is doing. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a1b9a8bb | featureApplicability |
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Spider-Man: Homecoming | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a1b9a8bb | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a20093e6 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a20093e6 | comment |
The 2005 film Man of the House featured Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger serving as a bodyguard to a group of college cheerleaders that witnessed a murder, he confiscates their cell phones for their safety. When he does this, Paula Garces yells "Your Mother fucks dogs, you know that?" in Spanish, Jones replies in Spanish that he can speak the language and in English states it'd be impossible since his Mother is allergic to dogs. | |
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Man of the House | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a20093e6 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a2c37f38 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a2c37f38 | comment |
The trope is inverted towards the end of Planescape: Torment. The main character encounters his previous incarnations, including the Paranoid Incarnation, who learned the language of the Uyo, killed every other speaker, then wrote his diary in Uyo, ensuring no-one would be able to decipher it. If you've found the journal and remembered the language, you can speak to him in Uyo and immediately win his trust. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_a2c37f38 | featureConfidence |
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Planescape: Torment (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a2c37f38 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a398da22 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a398da22 | comment |
Japanese wrestler, former sumo grand champion and notorious hard-ass Koji Kitao was on a US tour years ago. According to a wrestler buddy, his opponent walked over before their match and exclaimed "IN AMERICA WE DON'T WORK STIFF, WE WORK LIGHT." Eh-nun-cee-ay-ting every word for his benefit. Kitao smiled and nodded in apparent agreement. His opponent left the room, at which point Kitao said something in perfect English along the lines of "stupid f**king asshole, didn't he think I know English?" They had their match, where Kitao proceeded to stiff the unholy hell out of him and separated his shoulder with a judo slam for good measure. | |
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Koji Kitao (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a398da22 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a57cf54d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a57cf54d | comment |
In Darths & Droids, when Lando announces he's confiscating Han's ship, Han reassures his teammates in Pig Latin (possibly a Translation Convention for Thieves' Cant, but other characters have no reason for knowing it), saying that they'll just steal it back. Lando answers in kind. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a57cf54d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a57cf54d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Darths & Droids (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a57cf54d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a60f8e43 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a60f8e43 | comment |
The Host (2006): The American doctor and Korean translator speak among themselves about how the virus that the monster was supposedly carrying that was used as justification for quarantining the city isn't real and was made up by the military to make containment easier for them. Unfortunately for them, the nearby Gang-du is smarter than they assume and also knows just enough English to get the gist of what they're saying and thus they've just exposed the Government Conspiracy. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a60f8e43 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_a60f8e43 | featureConfidence |
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The Host (2006) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a60f8e43 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6658fee | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6658fee | comment |
In The Hunt for Red October, Ramius comments in Russian to Borodin that Mancuso is a "buckaroo", the kind of US Naval commander they were expecting to encounter in their defection plan. Ryan laughs. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6658fee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6658fee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Hunt for Red October | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6658fee | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6b9b759 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6b9b759 | comment |
In The Guild, when Kwan the Korean programmer insults his opposing team in Korean, and Vork, leader retaliates...in a language that is barely recognizable as Korean. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6b9b759 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6b9b759 | featureConfidence |
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The Guild (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_a6b9b759 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ac6d1fe6 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ac6d1fe6 | comment |
In My Fellow Americans, the two main characters run into some Mexicans. One strikes up a conversation, insulting the other man, but after the Mexicans leave the scene the other comes back with: "By the way, yo hablo español muy bien. Dickhead." | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ac6d1fe6 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ac6d1fe6 | featureConfidence |
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My Fellow Americans | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ac6d1fe6 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ad43200e | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ad43200e | comment |
Averted in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, when Carrie and Charles encounter his deaf brother while out shopping. The two men proceed to converse in sign language, during which Charles complains about Carrie's impending wedding and makes nasty comments about her fiance (he's in love with her) while his brother "comments" on her "beautiful breasts", all the while telling Carrie that they're offering compliments and congratulations. One watches the scene expecting that any minute now, it will be revealed that Carrie knows sign language herself and has understood everything—but it never happens. (It would have been really surprising if she had, as the sign language used in the US isn't related at all to the one used in the UK.) | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ad43200e | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ad43200e | featureConfidence |
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Four Weddings and a Funeral | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ad43200e | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b12eac82 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b12eac82 | comment |
In Juliet Marillier's Daughter of the Forest, the main character is Irish but understands English perfectly well. She fluently speaks both languages, except that for most of the book she's not allowed to speak. Three English men pick her up and take her to England from Ireland. She is quite seasick on the way there, and two of the men, though helpful, make comments about it, thinking she doesn't understand. The third one, who knows she does understand, debates how long to let them go on before letting them know that she does, in fact, understand what they're saying. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b12eac82 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b12eac82 | featureConfidence |
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Daughter of the Forest | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b12eac82 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b3f687d1 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b3f687d1 | comment |
FoxTrot: Jason's tap-dancing act in the school's talent show lands him in trouble because one of the teachers understands Morse code. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b3f687d1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b3f687d1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
FoxTrot (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b3f687d1 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b419d8a7 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b419d8a7 | comment |
That Deaf Guy: In strip #347, Cedric is at a doctor's office and Desmond brought an interpreter so the Doctor could understand him (because he's Deaf and doesn't speak English). When the interpreter tells the doctor that Desmond gave permission for the shot, Cedric interrupts and claims the interpreter got the signs wrong and he doesn't need the shot. The doctor and interpreter look worried, but Desmond knows Cedric is trying to lie (in English) about the ASL conversation, as Desmond can read lips. In strip #398, the (Deaf) family is eating out at a restaurant and signing together. The first panel has people commenting about them, then the other panel has Helen turn to say that she can hear. |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_b419d8a7 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_b419d8a7 | featureConfidence |
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That Deaf Guy (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b419d8a7 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b96bcea4 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b96bcea4 | comment |
In the second half of Phantom Soldiers, protagonist Daniel finds himself waking up in what he assumes to be an American military base after barely surviving a firefight against the titular soldiers, but, in actuality, the base is a front used by the Spetsnaz to develop their own legion of Super-soldiers. Daniel managed to deduce the truth when he overheard the base's cook cussing in Russian while oblivious to Daniel's presence. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b96bcea4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b96bcea4 | featureConfidence |
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Phantom Soldiers | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b96bcea4 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b9afed9a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_b9afed9a | comment |
In Superman & Batman: Generations, Bruce Wayne Jr. and his wife Mei-Lei told their son Clark that they met in Vietnam during the war. The truth is, BJ is only Clark's step-father and the real situation is much more complexnote Clark's real father was Joel Kent, who helped Lex Luthor destroy his own family after years of being Superman's De Powered son filled him with envy and resentment. Discovering that the infant Clark likewise had no powers, Superman asked BJ raise him so he wouldn't be put through the same situation. When BJ asks Clark to take up the mantle of Batman, Clark declines, explaining that he learned Vietnamese from a classmate years ago and already knows the truth. While he still views BJ as his real father, he doesn't feel that it's right for anyone other than a full-blooded Wayne to be Batman, and instead creates a new heroic identity: Knightwing. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ba8b067d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ba8b067d | comment |
In a deleted scene of the Indian film Ra.One. The story starts out in London, where you wouldn't expect people to know Hindi. Unfortunately for Prateek, the school bully he was insulting in Hindi also knows a bit of it. | |
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raone | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ba8b067d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_bc42183b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_bc42183b | comment |
In The Proud Family, Papi constantly insults Suga Mama in Spanish, with her unaware of what he's actually saying and mistakes it for flirting. In The Movie, due to a Spanish peanut being used in the process, Suga Mama's clone is able to understand Spanish and doesn't take kindly to Papi's insults. Ironically, Papi finds this new behavior attractive. | |
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The Proud Family | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_bc42183b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_bfa2fb05 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_bfa2fb05 | comment |
In Simply Irresistible, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a chef who runs a small restaurant in New York. She's given a chance to step in and replace a celebrity chef at a brand-new, big-money restaurant. The celebrity chef's staff pretty much holds her in contempt. The sous chef, who probably expected as the "second in command" of the restaurant to step into the top spot when the celebrity left, says loudly and in French, "The truffles are probably wasted on her!" Later in the film, Gellar's character issues her orders for the night and begins with, "You... the one who thinks I don't know how to speak French... you're in charge of the truffles. That way I won't waste them." | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_c15f00ad | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c15f00ad | comment |
The Peacemaker: George Clooney's character introduces Dr. Julia Kelly to his Russian contact, who says to Clooney in his own language, "A beautiful woman with a Ph.D. You're way out of your league." She butts in to reply in Russian, "You have no idea." When they first meet he hands Kelly a list of names of Russian military personnel. On her remark that the list is useless, Clooney says that the list is written in Russian, only to be told by Kelly in fluent Russian that the list is missing ranks and other details. |
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The Peacemaker | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c15f00ad | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2297a9c | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2297a9c | comment |
Judge Dredd: In a story where McGruder negotiates closer ties with Traktorfaktori, Traktorfaktori's attendant Judges make several comments on Hershey's and Dredd's backsides in Russian. Hershey and Dredd respond angrily, in perfect Russian. During an East Meg Two diplomatic visit to Mega City One, two of the Sov Judges talk to each other in their native tongue while ogling Hershey's arse. She retorts in their own language that they better keep their eyes in check. |
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Judge Dredd (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2297a9c | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c28ecade | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c28ecade | comment |
In Shatterheart when Mokona gets too far of range for Syaoran and Kurogane to speak to each other, Syaoran uses to this opportunity to tell Kurogane that he has a very nice voice and finds his native language pretty. At first, it seems that Kurogane did understand him, but turns out he didn't. Syaoran lampshaded that would be contrived for Mokona to go back in range just as he says something embarrassing. | |
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Shatterheart / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c28ecade | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2cdb82b | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2cdb82b | comment |
A sci-fi example occurs towards the end of Barry Longyear's Enemy Mine when the human hero is traveling to the Drac homeworld and fluently and profanely responds to a fellow-traveler Drac's insults; the Drac's companions have to physically restrain him. | |
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The Enemy Papers | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c2cdb82b | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c487221e | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c487221e | comment |
Inverted in Men in Black: Insulting the (apparently) Mexican illegal immigrant in Spanish (saying extremely profane/insulting things in a cheery tone of voice) but getting no reaction whatsoever is how K figures out that the alien is an actual alien (as in, extra-terrestrial) in disguise. | |
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Men in Black | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c487221e | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c511c682 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c511c682 | comment |
Asterix and the Goths: A Gothic raiding party has captured Getafix and taken him to their Kuningaz, Metric. Metric tells his interpreter, Rhetoric, that "if he refuses [to show his magic], he will be executed, and you with him." When Getafix refuses, Rhetoric says that Getafix will show it when the time is right. Rhetoric then flees before the deception is unmasked, only to run into Astérix and Obélix, who he ends up turning in to Metric. Then, Getafix still says no, but Rhetoric says yes again. Then... Subverted in another scene, when Asterix and Obelix are trying to extract information from Rhetoric. He feigns ignorance of Gaulish, only for the ruse to slip when he sneezes and says "thanks" in Gaulish after Asterix says "bless you!" |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_c511c682 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c59abec0 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c59abec0 | comment |
There's that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace catches Longshanks's advisor insulting him to Princess Isabelle in Latin and French: | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c59abec0 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_c59abec0 | featureConfidence |
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Braveheart | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c59abec0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c9afb7d2 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_c9afb7d2 | comment |
In Au revoir les enfants, set in Occupied France, Julien and Jean become lost in the woods at night until they are rescued and returned to their boarding school by a group of German soldiers. When they arrive, one of the other pupils exclaims, "They've been arrested by the Boches!", using a French slur for Germans, to which one of the soldiers replies in deadpan French, "Can the Boches have their blanket back?" | |
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Au revoir les enfants | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ca5cb239 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ca5cb239 | comment |
In the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, when the four main characters first meet at Discipline Cottage, Briar rudely asks why Daja, a Trader, is wearing red for mourning. After Daja explains, she looks over at Sandry, who also speaks the Trader language, and says in that language, "And he is a kaq" (a very rude word for a non-Trader.) Briar immediately says in Trader-talk, "I haven't spent my life with my fingers in my ears. And I'm not stupid." | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ca5cb239 | featureConfidence |
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Circle of Magic | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ca5cb239 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cabb7dd6 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cabb7dd6 | comment |
In Yokoka's Quest, while Azha is having a conversation with Yokoka in Forest language, he reverts to Moon language to say to Misha, "This will be a real pain in the butt". Yokoka immediately replies in Moon language, "What's a pain in the butt?", to Azha and Misha's surprise (and to Yokoka's confusion, as it's possibly the first time she's heard or spoke it since losing her memories). | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cabb7dd6 | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_cabb7dd6 | featureConfidence |
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Yokoka's Quest (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cabb7dd6 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cccefdf1 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cccefdf1 | comment |
This is also played with in Stroker and Hoop, where Columbian drug lords force Double Wide to take them to Stroker and Hoop, who are hiding in The Deep South. On the way there, they talk in Spanish about how they'll kill him before moving onto Stroker and Hoop. Double Wide nervously says he wishes he didn't speak Spanish (in Spanish, no less). | |
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Stroker and Hoop | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cccefdf1 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cf26fff | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cf26fff | comment |
In Black Crayons, Ironhide begins teaching Annabelle some basics about how to speak Cybertronian. This allows her to listen in and participate on a few conversations she wasn't supposed to understand. This includes Skids and Mudflap's plans to pull a prank on Ironhide, use the universal greeting on Barricade, and hear a critical conversation about a traitor in the Autobot's midst. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cf26fff | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_cf26fff | featureConfidence |
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Black Crayons (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_cf26fff | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d23e6c9a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d23e6c9a | comment |
In Amazing Fantasy, when Izuku knocks out Peter Parker when he thinks the latter is trying to mug him, Peter tries to ask him what just happened, not knowing that Izuku has good grades in English and is able to understand Peter just fine. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d23e6c9a | featureApplicability |
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Amazing Fantasy (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d23e6c9a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d2ef54a3 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d2ef54a3 | comment |
A variant in Dumbing of Age: Following a childhood incident, Marcie can't speak. The always-outspoken Malaya assumes that, since Marcie uses sign language, she must be deaf, and therefore is even less tactful than normal in talking about her. | |
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Dumbing of Age (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d2ef54a3 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d32d5a07 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d32d5a07 | comment |
Thrawn has Thrawn get an interpreter who speaks Sy Bisti, in the Empire a language so obscure no translator has it programmed, but a common trader's tongue in the Unknown Regions. As time goes on it becomes more and more clear that Thrawn has little need for a translator but is keeping Vanto on to groom him for command. Later, they capture some Rebels and offer to let them go, the Rebels are left together to discuss the offer and where they'd go instead of the base... In Sy Bisti. | |
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Thrawn | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_d32d5a07 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dc88b252 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dc88b252 | comment |
In Green Book Tony runs into a few friends who make disparaging remarks about his black boss Don in Italian, and offer him a job that pays twice as much. Later Don has a chat with Tony, in perfect Italian. | |
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Green Book | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dc88b252 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_df64a221 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_df64a221 | comment |
In Mercenaries, the leaders of the South Korean, Chinese, and Russian Mafia factions will occasionally speak in their native languages in front of the player; each of the mercs speaks one of those languages, but they don't actually call the speakers out on it. Of course, this can make the speakers look kind of stupid: it's one thing for the South Koreans to do this to Chris Jacobs (who looks African-American but is half Korean), but it's entirely another for the Chinese to do it to Jennifer Mui (who, if the name didn't give it away, is very clearly of Chinese heritage); as for the Russians, their leader actually is an idiot. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_df64a221 | featureConfidence |
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Mercenaries (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_df64a221 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dfc32ea9 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dfc32ea9 | comment |
In the original version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Garber is showing a group of Japanese businessmen representing the Tokyo Metro around the New York City Subway command center. Throughout, he addresses them in various insulting ways, such as "dummies", "idiots", and "monkeys". When a subway train is hijacked and he has to end the tour, they thank him — in fluent English and with a very polite yet mocking tone. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_dfc32ea9 | featureConfidence |
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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_dfc32ea9 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e519be4f | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e519be4f | comment |
In A Desert Called Peace, when Carrera is drowning his sorrows over the wife and children killed in a terrorist attack, he demonstrates to a woman insulting him in Spanish that he, too, speaks the language, in spite of a conversation with the woman's friend being in English. | |
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Carrera's Legions | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e519be4f | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e81bddf4 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e81bddf4 | comment |
In the Irish short film Na FÃorghael, a couple of clients at a psychologist's office are positive that the receptionist is insulting them in her phone conversations (which are all in Irish). They take it upon themselves to learn Irish for six months well enough that this happens. Turns out this was deliberately provoked by the receptionist. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_e81bddf4 | featureConfidence |
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Na FÃorghael | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_e81bddf4 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ec1ff3ae | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ec1ff3ae | comment |
Bravely Second has a subversion. The floating city of Sagitta speaks largely in French. At one point, a young boy named Procyon insults Tiz's hair while speaking to his father in French. Tiz does not speak French (though he could still tell that his hair was being made fun of), but Magnolia does. Procyon's father knew this, but Procyon did not. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ec1ff3ae | featureConfidence |
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Bravely Second (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ec1ff3ae | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ec4df952 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ec4df952 | comment |
Averted in The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar, when the polyglot protagonist turns out to not know Tatar, allowing the two tatars to mock him behind his back in the Tbilisi bathhouse. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_ecbe1a43 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ecbe1a43 | comment |
In The Ugly American, American diplomats hire natives of the fictional war-torn Southeast Asian country to work as servants in their embassy. A visiting Chinese diplomat discovers and explains that at least some of the servants are spies pretending not to understand English. | |
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The Ugly American | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_ecbe1a43 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_edb68237 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_edb68237 | comment |
The Great Escape: During the planning stages of the escape, one of the prisoners is being coached in conversational German. The instructor suddenly asks him a question in English and the other responds in English. The instructor warns him not to do that because it's a pretty basic way for Gestapo agents tracking the escapees to ferret them out. After the escape, a Gestapo agent indeed pulls this, and it's the instructor himself who falls for it and is caught. | |
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The Great Escape | hasFeature |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_eeaaec28 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_eeaaec28 | comment |
Martian Successor Nadesico: Yurika contacts the U.N. to ask them to lower the Big Barrier, a forcefield to destroy incoming Chulips, but which works both ways. She tells her advisors that she'll just charm them, as they don't speak Japanese. The head of the U.N. then scolds her in Japanese for her presumption. Yurika then responds, in the original Japanese version, in English. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_f1bbb784 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f1bbb784 | comment |
My Life In Ruins has this in the embarrassing direction, as the heroine stands complaining about her life in English while standing in line with a group of Greeks, including her bus driver: | |
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1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f1bbb784 | featureConfidence |
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My Life In Ruins | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f1bbb784 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f236a7c7 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f236a7c7 | comment |
Thanks to Aide, the titular general of the Belisarius Series can become fluent in languages very quickly just by listening to them. This becomes a critical factor during his mission to India when the Malwa and their allies don't realize until too late that he can speak Hindi, Kushan, and several other languages like a native, and he makes the effort to not let them know this until it's too late. | |
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Belisarius Series | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f236a7c7 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f26c58d6 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f26c58d6 | comment |
In World in Conflict, a pre-mission cutscene has Colonel Sawyer (American) and Commandant Sabatier (French) arguing, in English, about letting an American officer command NATO forces. Sabatier voices his annoyance in his native tongue. Sawyer shuts him down in the same. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_f26c58d6 | featureConfidence |
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World in Conflict (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f26c58d6 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f2d05b9d | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f2d05b9d | comment |
Goblin Hollow has Lilly's puma grandparents insult Ben the bear in Navajo, until he reveals he knows the language. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f2d05b9d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f2d05b9d | featureConfidence |
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Goblin Hollow (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f2d05b9d | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f484c6d5 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f484c6d5 | comment |
One comic in Exploitation Now had Jordan and Bush hitching a ride on a bus full of Asian girls from an anime con. One of the girls in front of them notices the two and seeing Bush, thinking she a fellow Asian (since Bush is half Asian) starts to mock Jordan in her native tongue thinking Jordan can't understand her. However it turns out Bush can't understand the language but Jordan can and quickly lets the girl know she not amused. | |
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Exploitation Now (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f484c6d5 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f70613b0 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f70613b0 | comment |
In The Company Novels, at one point Mendoza and her fellow go to Venice, where they make whoopee in a canal boat. The gondolier comments loudly on the action to his fellow gondoliers, assuming the pair don't speak his language. After they're done, Mendoza tells him in his own language exactly what he can do with his pole. And doesn't tip. | |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_f70613b0 | featureConfidence |
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The Company Novels | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f70613b0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f858847a | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f858847a | comment |
In Pokémon X and Y, a Kantonian woman whose Pokemon were stolen comes to Looker's office in search of help, but Looker can't speak her language (English in the Japanese version, Japanese in all other versions). She is very upset that Looker dashes off to buy tea rather than help her out, and calls Looker and everyone in his agency idiots... right as Looker's ward Emma comes in, who does speak the woman's language. | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f858847a | featureApplicability |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_f858847a | featureConfidence |
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Pokémon X and Y (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_f858847a | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fa84b099 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fa84b099 | comment |
Larry Shue's play The Foreigner is made of this trope. A tourist pretends to be a foreigner who doesn't speak English so he doesn't have to have small talk conversations with others. Since he doesn't speak English, people have various conversations in front of him which eventually reveals a plot to drive the owner of the lodge out and use the place for KKK meetings. | |
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The Foreigner (Theatre) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fa84b099 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fc2d494 | type |
Bilingual Backfire | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fc2d494 | comment |
Not Always Working: This server assumes Americans can't speak French, and first derides their attempts to do so, then assumes they can't understand her. And they're not even American, they're Québécois . | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fc2d494 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fc2d494 | featureConfidence |
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Not Always Working (Website) | hasFeature |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fc2d494 | |
Bilingual Backfire / int_fcd86271 | type |
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Bilingual Backfire / int_fcd86271 | comment |
In the first scene of The King and I, the Kralahome initially speaks to Anna through an interpreter; however, when she refuses to be treated as a doormat, he starts speaking in perfect English and calls her out on her poor manners and ignorance of protocol. | |
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In The Royal Diaries book Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Pompey, believing neither Cleopatra nor her father understood Latin, proceeded to insult Ptolemy to his face and said something to Cleopatra (she doesn't go into details, but given her reaction, it was probably sexual harassment). Then Cleopatra reveals she can understand Latin, and makes it clear that she and her father would leave if he continues to insult them. | |
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In Avatar: The Way of Water, when Recombinant Quatrich captures Sully's son Lo'ak and interrogates him about his father's whereabouts, Lo'ak replies in Na'vi language that he doesn't speak English to buttholes. Quatrich simply repeats his question again in near-perfect Na'vi just to make it clear that he can understand Lo'ak in any language and doesn't have patience for stalling. | |
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