History Main / FauxFluency

* The Playstation 3 [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] of ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' at least seems that the token Japanese Herovillain's English is simply being read off a script, and the speaker doesn't understand a word of it. Or if he does, he must have one hell of a speech impediment.

* Contrary to a common misconception, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}'s National Anthem is in Urdu, an official language of the country alongside English. However, the lyrics are in classical Urdu rather than the form of the language spoken by modern Pakistanis. While the lyricist carefully selected the words to ensure that they were valid in Urdu, the vast majority are similar to Farsi words, and many of ''those'' are identical in the two languages; only one word in the entire anthem is exclusive to Urdu. At the time of adoption, most educated Pakistanis were fluent in Farsi (somewhat like how many educated Westerners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries could speak French). Today... not so much. So most Pakistanis learn it phonetically.

* Nearly happened in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' -- Akio Ohtsuka was more than willing to do all the Russian dialogue in rote-learned Russian, but the supporting cast revolted.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' has a few episodes:

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' has a few episodes.

* Music/DavidByrne learned the French lines in "[[Music/TalkingHeads77 Psycho Killer]]" phonetically. He'd translated them into that language with the help of his bandmate Tina Weymouth, who ''does'' speak the language.

* {{Opera}} - many opera singers learn their music phonetically, as most opera is in French, German, or Italian; even if they speak one of the languages, knowing all three is rare. As well, some operas are in English or Russian, adding extra challenges if singers don't speak those languages.

* In an example combined with SameLanguageDub, Gert Frobe played ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' while speaking phonetically, as he was a German who didn't know English (though he spoke too slowly, and [[{{Undercrank}} the footage had to sped up]] for the dubbing).

* Similarly to the ''Durarara!!'' example, ''Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing'' feature a lot of Russian-speaking characters. They do a fair job, but their accents are still ''very'' grating. Except Viola, whose {{seiyuu}} is a native Russian.
* When Yuko Miyamura was hired to voice the German-Japanese Asuka Langley Soryu in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', she taught herself a little German. Unfortunately, she didn't know that Asuka wasn't going to speak more than a scene's worth of German in the anime. This is not the case with the English dub, where the VA for Asuka ''already'' spoke German (and even [[TranslationCorrection improved the fluency]] [[GratuitousGerman of the character's dialogue]]).

* ''Film/{{Highlander}}'': Although lead actor Creator/ChristopherLambert was born in New York and had already appeared in an English-language film (''Film/GreystokeTheLegendOfTarzanLordOfTheApes''), he was a Frenchman and barely spoke any English. He had to learn the language quickly and learned his lines virtually phonetically. Luckily, he's supposed to have a muddled accent through most of the film.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* Creator/JamesHong struggles through most of his Mandarin lines as a Triad mob boss in ''Film/{{Safe}}'', maybe because he was born in America, moved to Hong Kong for his early education, and moved back when he was ten.

* Asami "Sam" Koizumi from ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' is a young girl from Japan, but her Japanese sounds very broken. Her voice actress, Creator/JaniceKawaye is fluent in Japanese, so it's possible that the writers made some errors.

It's either this or AsLongAsItSoundsForeign. Contrast SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage and SurprisinglyGoodEnglish.

* ''Anime/NightRaid1931'' has many foreign languages being spoken in it, being a 1930s spy thriller set mainly in Shanghai. But whenever the main characters try to speak a foreign language, it is so obvious their voice actors are speaking phonetically. Aoi's Mandarin in the first episode is quite grating, and Kazura's German in a later episode is just as bad. However, background & one-shot foreign characters are played by native speakers. For example, the Chinese soldiers in the Nationalist camp in the first episode are definitely fluent speakers, and the Russian violinist in the second episode is acted by a native Russian (he even gets the upper-class drawl of the violinist correct). In episode 6, BigBad Takachiho Isao holds a conference between representatives from nearly half a dozen Asian nations and everyone speaks heavily-accented English. Isao himself speaks some SurprisinglyGoodEnglish when he kidnaps British diplomat Bulwer-Lytton, just with a thick accent.

* The AnnouncerChatter for ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium'', as performed by radio DJ Hiroaki Asai. If you listen closely, it's clear from his random pausing and inflections that he's not a native speaker of English, but his annunciation [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish is quite good overall]] and his being a Large-Ham Announcer makes up for everything as a whole.