Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Unclear Description
, started by storyyeller on Aug 23rd 2019 at 12:31:05 AM
I think the ending reeks of people who have only ever experienced foreign languages as things to use in cafés. In my experience (both from myself and others) speaking in another language, the simpler words are the ones most likely to be blurted out. After all, simple words are so tightly bound to usage in our heads that they become part of a reaction, rather than language per se.
Here are some examples I can think of right now:
- Swedes saying "jaha?" for "oh, really?"
- Any of my friends shouting at the TV when sports are on
- My Italian friend only ever seems to swear in Italian
- In an argument through English with an Icelander, he blurted out "jo!... erm, but no it is!" (similar to "doch" in German, "si" in French)
- Germans always seem to say "gesundheit", but this one might be different, since it has nearly entered the English language
The examples may seem extravagantly varied, but I have just spent a year as an exchange student, meeting people from many countries. I do feel that the wide range of mothertongues does indicate a human tendency and strengthens the evidence, anecdotal though it might be. Passion is probably the most important element in making someone blurt out their native language. I suppose then one is less likely to think of words; more of meaning.
EDIT: formatting
Edited by cupantae Hide / Show Replies
From the other side, just starting to become comfortable in a foreign language, when I have recently been speaking it, I start to give automatic phrases, like "pardon me" or "bless you" in that language. And it is the simple words, the ones I use most often, like "really" or "what?" that tend to pop out in the middle of a conversation that started in English. From what I have heard from others, the problem particularly bad when you are just starting to think in more than one language.
Since you have to think more, and really concentrate, when discussing more unusual topics like genetic manipulation, mistakes like this are less likely unless you really do not know the word in the language you are trying to speak. On the other end of the scale, someone who has to think about and translate each word in her head before speaking will not make these mistakes either.
- Resident Evil 4 does this with everyone who's not a normal villager. Normal villagers will speak only Spanish (though sometimes what they say doesn't make much sense, due to not-so-good translation), but every other native will sometimes slip into a "Señor", for instance, despite being perfectly able to discuss genetic manipulation science in perfect English.
- Chance is that this is Translation Convention at work; it's implied that in reality, the conversation was entirely in Spanish.
Real Life incident, possibly applicable, perhaps not funny enough to include. I was at a dinner where pecan pie was served. I asked my neighbor, an American residing in France, how to say 'pecan' in French. He replied that there may not be a French word for it, as it's an American tree, so they'd probably simply say noix (French for 'nut' in general, pronounced /nwa/). Someone across the table didn't hear him clearly and asked for clarification, so I said loudly, "Noycks!" The other fortunately understood. "Ah yes of course, noix (/nwa/)."
For reference: I removed the Final Fantasy X example; only proper nouns (or a few words that are just a hair away from being proper nouns) are left untranslated in Al Bhed.
[[color:purple:♏]]
Pulled out a lengthy rant about one sentence from Dark Yagami. Given the nature of the story and the sheer amount of similar examples in that chapter alone, it's probably best to leave it general.
- There are so many things wrong with the following sentence that it would be difficult to list them all, but the fact that "GRACIAS" is Gratuitous Spanish especially stands out.
"GRACIAS!" she thanked. "I fortez je was mort" (An: France for dead) "Jem apple Naomi".
- This bilingual troper will give it a shot:
- 1) The verb "forter" does not exist in French.
- 2) If there was such a verb, "fortez" would be its second person plural conjugation.
- 3) The pronoun "je" is the first person singular (same as "I" in English). At least the pronouns are consistent between languages — but the verb doesn't match the pronoun.
- 4) Also, "fortez" is the present-tense conjugation of the non-existent verb "forter" — but "was" is past-tense. We have now added Tense Confusion to the list of grammatical sins committed by the author.
- 5) Since the speaker is female, "mort" should have been "morte".
- 6) "Jem apple" should be "Je m'appelle" ("My name is").
- 7) While the name Naomi is a fairly common French name, it's not spelled (or pronounced) "Naomi" in French. It's spelled "Noémi".
- The rest of the mistakes in that sentence (like "France" instead of "French" in the author's note) should be obvious to native English speakers, so we will leave it at that.
- This bilingual troper will give it a shot:
I cut the following examples from the Fanworks folder:
General ("meta") example, and incredibly complain-y (I don't like to see languages misused either, but seriously, take it easy).
General example (instead of this blanket example, make bullets for specific fanfics where this happens), nattery, and the last point isn't even connected to this trope.
General example, as well as ZCE. Name the fics where this happens.
General example.
General example, complain-y.
Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird