History Main / EloquentInMyNativeTongue

* The BarneyMiller episode "Hunger Strike" included an encounter with a middle-aged inmate of an institution who had wandered off and taken some flowers from a street vendor. She cheerfully greeted everyone with the phrase "Noga ubav den" and offered the flowers, which she called "svet". Her supervising psychiatrist said it was "hebephrenic gibberish", but eventually it was identified as Macedonian, and a native speaker located in a nearby coffee shop (hey, it ''is'' NYC). She had been in the institution for thirty years because nobody could understand what she was saying. Unfortunately, this is TruthinTelevision.

* In the ''{{Bones}}'' episode "The Salt in the Wound," Brennan's assistant behaves much more like a normal human than any of the regular cast, most of whom underestimate him because of his accent.
* Happens at least twice in ''TheBigBangTheory'': ubergenius Sheldon is incoherent in Mandarin, and Raj claims he would kick Sheldon's ass in an argument if he was speaking his native language. Sheldon points out that English ''is'' Raj's native language.

[[{{Pogo}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hepzibah_by_kelly.jpg]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''{{Shogun}}'' goes both ways with this trope, with some Japanese speaking English poorly, and Blackthorne struggling and even getting in trouble trying to speak Japanese.
* RudyardKipling sometimes does this. In the prototype Mowgli story, "In the Rukh", when the German Muller is speaking English, his accent is rendered atrociously, but when he's speaking to Mowgli (presumably in Hindi) it's translated in the same Olde Englishe dialect Kipling uses to render all [[NobleSavage "native" languages]].

** The Trolls were originally homeless drug addicts. Most powerful of them, they dah ones most loaded up on a highly addictive drug that slowly breaks down the perception of just one dimension rather than a many supply of them. Individuals like Julius, however, are still considered fairly intelligent by the heroes he works with, and have an impressive grasp on the situation in The Hollows.

* ''TeamFortress2'' has the Heavy, who sounds a great deal more eloquent in the Russian version of his trailer.

** Some Draenei NPCs speak broken Common as well, understandable because they've only been on the planet for a few years.

* Elements of [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]] {{Fanon}} presume this about {{Hulkspeak}}-prone HotAmazon Shampoo.
** At the risk of FanWank here, she's an extremely-devoted-to-fighting amazon from a remote village in China. And Mousse speaks perfect Japanese. So, it may be that she isn't all that bright in her native language in the first place. But who cares? Have you SEEN the look on her boobs? Ahem.
*** Only the English translation uses {{Hulkspeak}} - the Japanese version just uses stereotypical "Chinese speaking Japanese" word choices.
*** Also, when she speaks Chinese to Mousse, she's eloquent to the point of being archaic. Makes you wonder how she learned that from the casual Cologne.

** Very many scenes in the Japan arc have their moods killed by Rock and Revy's attempts at sounding badass in English. It's very cringeworthy.
* Kuu Fei from ''MahouSenseiNegima'', despite her grades is ''not'' stupid; her physical/kinetic ability sits at a genius level. She also occasionally speaks in her native Chinese, at which she comes off as perfectly concise. Sadly, the translator for Del Rey's manga line, Trish Ledoux also worked in Viz media's scrip for [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]], meaning she gets similar treatment as Shampoo in the English manga.

* Natalya in ''YTheLastMan'' has the honor of this page's quote.
** Not to mention the following troper's favourites:

*** For added fun, read her in the worst Russian accent you can manage.
*** And these examples ''[[BuffySpeak not]]'' even [[BlindIdiotTranslation resemble spoken Russian]] patterns, though [[RuleOfFunny that doesn't matter]].
**** To be sure, it may be that she is trying to work with what she BELIEVES are English patterns.
**** And, to be fair, "homosexualist" IS, basically, equivalent to the Russian word noun "homosexual."

** Inverted in ''[[TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'', when Princess Leia meets a Wookie who speaks Basic very well. But among his people, ''he'' is considered to have a speech impediment, because he can't speak the Wookie language.
*** The Wookiee in question actually does not speak Basic, but in fact pronounces the Wookiee language (Shyriiwook) in a slow, enunciated way that makes it much easier for a native Basic-speaker with a rudimentary education in Shyriiwook to ''understand'' him...due to a nasty speech impediment. Lucky for him, instead of giving him speech therapy, the Wookiee embassy gave him an ambassadorial post.

* Played with in ''AnInstanceOfTheFingerpost''. One of the narrators, an Italian traveler [[spoiler: and EvilJesuit (or at least Jesuit spy)]] discusses himself this way and there are scenes in his narration where he unknowingly creates problems because of not understanding the nuances of English. However, he states that because of being able to speak Latin and other languages fluently, he can still hobnob with English intellectuals. Another narrator, an unpleasant xenophobe basically describes him as a gibbering FunnyForeigner making a fool of himself among the English. What makes things confusing, is that the final narrator (an intellectual) finds the Italian witty and erudite and the second narrator, who isn't that bright, doesn't seem to have any problem communicating with him. This suggests, [[UnreliableNarrator that the Italian might be falsely claiming to follow this trope in order to justify some his missunderstandings]] [[spoiler: and to cover up his true identity]].

* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Nathan 'Frying Man' Pettrelli and other characters initially underestimate Hiro due to his poor Engrish. (Of course, even in Japanese he's still a geek...)

** Also painfully/humorously averted when such people (who are often apologetic and worried about their English) end up [[UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking speaking it better than some of the native speakers they're talking to]]. A fictional such example would be Sayid from {{Lost}}, who has on at least one occasion worried he had been misunderstood and not clear in his speech (although he was talking to another non-native English speaker anyway), when he in fact speaks English fluently and with greater quality than many native speakers. As his portrayer is English this is not surprising.

** [[YourMilageMayVary Jury's still out on that one.]] There are still some people who believe that every time Brother speaks in the sequel, he fails. In both languages.

* Draak from ''IrregularWebcomic'' has a rather keen grasp on complex ideas, like "quark" and "gene", but only speaks in mono-syllables. In his own tongue, he's quite eloquent.
** He's ''very'' intelligent, by human standards, though it's not very obvious when he speaks English. He was seen in one strip making jokes about advanced mathematics in his first language.
*** Keep in mind about the "gene" and "quark" bit- Draak is a character in the medieval [[GenreRoulette 'Fantasy' theme]].
* ''GunnerkriggCourt'' uses this briefly: As seen [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=455 here]] (via the TranslationConvention), Antimony's Polish isn't as good as her native English.
** The reverse of the usual usage, since we see the "eloquent" half most of the time.

* Yuki from ''{{Megatokyo}}''. Everybody else either is perfectly bilingual or only ever speaks one tongue.
** On the other side of the language barrier, Piro speaks Japanese like a teenage girl, having learned it mostly from ren'ai games and shoujo anime and manga.

* [[DominicDeegan Donovan "Little Pink Man in Pink" Deegan]] is only capable of speaking Orcish in the sense that he seems to have a rather large vocabulary. He just doesn't know what those words mean. Despite this, he managed to negotiate a famous truce between two tribes (he had a translator, it's later pointed out) and is a rather famous figure to the orcs. Why he keeps trying to speak in Orcish despite absolutely no proficiency is a mystery; it's possible he doesn't realize just how bad at it he is. When speaking his native Callanian (The "English" of the world) he is the world's most renowned poet and bard.
** "My landmass erupts with kittens!"
** The fact that he doesn't know how bad he is at the language is supported by the fact that he taught an orcish boy how to speak Callanian.
** [[spoiler: Turns out he speaks Orkish perfectly and acts otherwise because [[RuleOfFunny he thinks it's funny.]]]]
*** WordOfGod states this will continue to be the case, though.

* Starfire from ''TeenTitans''.
** Although she doesn't actually have a bad grasp of English (probably due to a particularly fun form of TranslatorMicrobes) but speaks very formally, perhaps due to [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses being royalty]].
*** Her grammar and word choice is still a touch weird at points. "The mall of shopping"?
*** It seems to be deliberately archaic and verbose; "Hollywood Royal", perhaps?.
*** In truth, even after you learn a second language it takes a lot of interaction with native speakers to become actually fluent. Until then you will tend to sound "wooden", or more formal than you mean to. Starfire appears to be such a case.
*** At times she goes overboard. For example the time when she referred to doughnuts as the [[{{Flanderization}} "nuts of dough."]]
* Toshi from AmericanDad fits this category. He speaks japanese (and in one episode russian), but speaks absolutely no english whatsoever, leading everyone to believe he is actually a kind young man who hangs around with nerds while the captions that show what he is really saying are usually harsh, violent, or insulting to everyone around him. He does appear to understand english.

*** At times she goes overboard. For example the time when she referred to doughnuts as the "nuts of dough."

*** In truth, even after you learn a second language it takes a lot of interaction with native speakers to become actually fluent. Until then you will tend to sound "wooden", or more formal than you mean to. Starfire appears to be such a case.

** Also painfully/humorously averted when such people (who are often apologetic and worried about their English) end up speaking it better than some of the native speakers they're talking to. A fictional such example would be Sayid from {{Lost}}, who has on at least one occasion worried he had been misunderstood and not clear in his speech (although he was talking to another non-native English speaker anyway), when he in fact speaks English fluently and with greater quality than many native speakers. As his portrayer is English this is not surprising.

** Also painfully/humorously averted when such people (who are often apologetic and worried about their English) end up speaking it better than some of the native speakers they're talking to. A fictional such example would be Sayid from {{Lost}}, who has on at least one occasion worried he had been misunderstood and not clear in his speech(although he was talking to another non native English speaker anyway), when he in fact speaks English fluently and with greater quality than many native speakers. As his portrayer is English this is not surprising.

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* Boomhauer from KingOfTheHill. I tell you what most dang-ol' people can't understand stand a dang word he say, tell you what, even if the dang-ol' words are dang-ol' smartest thing-thing man just listen to him man he knows his talkin' bout.

---->"Unhand child or I unhead you!"

-->'''Heavy:''' Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe... * sniff* ... maybe. I have yet to meet one who can outsmart ''bullet''.

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]
* Fabrizio in ''TheLightInThePiazza''. His English is very broken, but when singing in Italian, he's quite poetic.

* Done with Disney's ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}''. Unspoken TranslatorMicrobes show that [[{{Disney/Tarzan}} he]] has no problems communicating with his animal friends.

* Fabrizio in ''TheLightinThePiazza''. His English is very broken, but when singing in Italian, he's quite poetic.

*** Keep in mind about the "gene" and "quark" bit- Draak is a character in the medieval [[GenreRoulette 'Fantasy' theme}}.

* Done with Disney's ''Film/{{Tarzan}}''. Unspoken TranslatorMicrobes show that [[{{Tarzan}} he]] has no problems communicating with his animal friends.