History Main / BilingualDialogue

** Han Solo especially. His conversations with his longtime companion Chewbacca all play this way. The prequel film ''Film/{{Solo}}'' shows that young Han understood the Wookiee language[[note]]Shyriiwook[[/note]], even before he met Chewie. He has trouble speaking it, though (Han's Wookiee lines are subtitled [[YouNoTakeCandle with fractured English]]). He also communicates with a repair droid on Hoth, Jabba the Hutt, and Greedo, though Greedo's speech is subtitled.

** Lando and Nien Nunb, his Sullustan copilot in the Death Star run in ''Return of the Jedi''. Nunb is actually speaking the Bantu language Haya ([[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Kipsang_Rotich his voice was performed by a Kenyan intern]]). It gives the conversation a BilingualBonus, since it's full of RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear:

* Ditto when Chigusa Nagayo put Momono Mio and La Rosa Negra together with their NEWTRA rival Iroha Takumi in her Marvelous promotion. That said, Nagayo herself seems to speak it all [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APW5gmjsgTg&feature=youtu.be and the rest did make progress towards one language conversation]].

* A interesting take on this is given in ''Webcomic/ExperimentalComicKotone'', with the [[YamatoNadeshiko Japanese traditional girl]] Haruna and Onii-chan. In a point of the story, each began to [[LanguageOfLove understand what the other is saying]], despite [[http://tsunamichannel.sakura.ne.jp/index.php?date=2002-07-09&comic=ExCoKo not having a grasp of the other one's language]], and both talking in their respective mother language. But when they had a serious misunderstanding for the very first time, their understanding suddenly and dramatically stopped. The issue was solved later, but since then Haruna has began to learn English.

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'''s Future Alternate Bass has this with an Expy of R2-D2, Mettool D2. [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/041122c Bob has it too]]

* Discussed in ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', which calls the use of passive/receptive bilingualism [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18721_the-5-stupidest-ways-movies-deal-with-foreign-languages.html The 5th Stupidest Way Movies Deal with Foreign Languages]].

* The town of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada, is widely regarded as that nation's most bilingual city, where most residents are fluent in both of Canada's official languages. Creator/{{CBC}} did a news report on the town in 1967, [[https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1724118408 showing how harmoniously citizens switched between English and French in everyday conversation]].

* Averted in ''Series/AlloAllo'' where the entire show is in English, but the characters all speak their own language (French, German, English, Italian) which the people who don't speak that language can't understand, and which is represented by their ''accent''. So the French Michelle ([[RunningGag of ze Resistance!]]) speaks English by affecting a "Pip-pip old
chap" accent. The exception is that the French and Germans can understand each other - it could be that it is assumed all Germans know French and all French know German, especially during the occupation. (And for practical purposes, since they interact so much it would have meant either the French characters affecting a German accent every other line or vice versa, [[NecessaryWeasel which is just awkward]].)

* Averted in ''Series/AlloAllo'' where the entire show is in English, but the characters all speak their own language (French, German, English, Italian) which the people who don't speak that language can't understand. (with the exception that the French and Germans can understand each other. - it could be that it is assumed all Germans know French and all French know German, especially during the occupation.)

* This is how [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disnayland Paris]] handles its live shows and ride pre-shows; half the characters will speak either French or English, and repetative dialogue is used so that the auidence only needs to understand one of the two languages.

See also BilingualBonus, EloquentInMyNativeTongue and InexplicableLanguageFluency. Compare IntelligibleUnintelligible. A common theme with TranslatorBuddy characters.

** Jabba the Hutt has similar bilingual conversations with several characters, though he is one of the few aversions to the trope by using C-3PO as a translator.[[note]]Finally giving C-3PO a chance to be useful. The prevalence of this trope does rather undercut his supposed function in life.[[/note]] When he's not using a translator, his dialogue is subtitled. At one point, Jabba uses C-3PO in a conversation with an alien who speaks neither Huttese nor Basic, but understands the latter. In this case, it is a ''tri''lingual conversation, since both Jabba and the alien can understand Basic, meaning that not only can C-3PO convey what each is saying to the other, they can also make sure that they are being accurately translated. [[spoiler:Of course, it's actually Leia in disguise, who speaks Basic perfectly, but that's not the point.]] Most Hutts can and do speak Basic, but they usually perceive it as a language inferior to their own, and would rather rely on translators rather than demean themselves by speaking an inferior language.

** The scenes with Jabba the Hutt in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' plays this trope straight... unless you're watching the 1997 [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion Special Edition]] where his dialogue is subtitled. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment With Threepio still there translating immediately afterwards]]. Thankfully this has been reversed as of the 2004 Special Edition.

-->'''Shao:''' ''[In Mandarin]]'' Speak English. Your Mandarin makes you sound like an idiot.\\

** Han Solo especially. His conversations with Chewbacca all play this way, which is justified by the fact that they're long-term companions. He also does this with a repair droid on Hoth, Jabba the Hutt, and Greedo, though Greedo's speech is subtitled.
*** As well, ''Film/{{Solo}}'' reveals that Han can speak Shyriiwook as well as understand it, although it's evidently not easy and it comes out as YouNoTakeCandle (to preserve the tradition, only his side of the conversation is subtitled). Han speaks in Shyriiwook to Chewie first to let him know he's a friend, and then to keep their escape plan covert around the Stormtrooper guards.

'''Lando:''' But how could they be jamming us if... [[OhCrap if they don't know we're coming]]...

** Lando and Nien Nunb, his Sullustan copilot in the Death Star run in ''Return of the Jedi''. Nunb is actually speaking Haya, a real African language, giving a BilingualBonus on their full conversation, which is full of RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear:

* ''Literature/ThenAgainMaybeIWont'': Tony's grandmother can't communicate in English herself - in fact, she can't speak at all, having had her larynx removed due to cancer, and can only write notes in Italian, which her daughter must translate for the rest of the family. However, she seems to be able to understand when her daughter and grandson talk to her in English.

* Most of ''Series/BettyEnNY'' is in Spanish but it also has a large amount of subtitled English due to it taking place in New York.
* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''. The use of this trope in ''Franchise/StarWars'' is parodied in the first episode when Boba and Fennec are shown nodding seriously while an Aqualish delegate gives a long speech in his own language. After he's left...
-->'''Boba:''' Did you catch any of that?
-->'''Fennec:''' Something about...friendship?
-->'''Boba:''' We really need a protocol droid.

* ''Machinima/DarkSecretsOfGarrysMod'': Most characters speak Hungarian but they are able to keep a conversation with other characters who speak English, mostly with the ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'' classes.

* Played with in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. The Reds can never understand [[GratuitousSpanish Lopez]], until he [[EasyImpersonation poses as Simmons]].

* In ''WebAnimation/GenLock'', Iida speaks Japanese while everyone else speaks English. Unlike with [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Lopez]] though, everyone can still understand him thanks to their AugmentedReality implants providing subtitles.

* In ''Film/NineteenFortyOne'', the Japanese crew of a submarine speak only Japanese, and a German on board speaks only German. Somehow, they understand each other perfectly. It's a pretty goofy movie.

* Subverted in ''Anime/GiganticFormula''. Every single one of the voice actors are Japanese, yet try their best to speak their characters' own languages. Later on in the series, the resident Russian pilot speaks dumbed down Japanese and claims he just learned it because of his being an international ambassador of sorts. By the end, all the pilots speak in Japanese, using headset-things called "automatic language interpreters" to translate their language for them.

* In ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'', Alba speaks Spanish to Jane and Xiomara. They respond in English.