History Main / AsLongAsItSoundsForeign

** This gets a LampshadeHanging and a HandWave pretty early on after meeting Miko. Roy asks about whether she should call her "Miko" or "Miyazaki", and she replies that she's never heard of Japan. It's the writer's way of saying, [[MST3KMantra "This isn't the real world, so don't pick at the languages, culture, or names of the Azurites."]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0209.html See for yourself]]

* Invoked in ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine''. When pretending to be a Russian spy, Nick brandishes the can of Chernobly like it was a bomb and repeatedly shouts "Dosvedanya!", which is Russian for "Goodbye" or "Farewell." As a matter of fact, a more exact translation would be "Until next time", which makes sense in their case, since they're jumping forward into the future.

* Subverted in episode 10 of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', where in-show foreigners Suzuki Sato and Tanaka Watanabe, both CIA agents, don't bother to check their Japanese aliases for simple things like using two surnames as a full name before entering the country. The Japanese officials with whom they interact are understandably befuddled upon seeing their calling cards. They're [[AcceptableTargets obnoxious Americans]] with their own sinister agenda and we're supposed to dislike them anyway. To add insult to injury, they look and act very much like some racist stereotypes of the Japanese, which is probably supposed to reflect their opinions of the country they've been assigned to.

* In the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'', UsefulNotes/{{Esperanto|TheUniversalLanguage}} is used for the street signs and posters in "foreign" cities to make the locale seem "generically European". Kris Kristofferson seriously studied speaking Esperanto for his brief scene buying a newspaper. In another scene, Hannibal King rests in a hospital watching ''Incubus'', starring Creator/WilliamShatner, one of only two Esperanto feature films in existence.

* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', Willie Scott sings Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" in Chinese that is so badly pronounced that native speakers struggle to understand what she's saying. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxsC6I3mrk Here's a Chinese speaker's best guess.]]

** However, whenever a villager speaks, it's Sinhala, not Hindi. This is because the Indian government didn't allow shooting in the country unless the script was changed to be less offensive to Indians. The studio moved production to Sri Lanka rather than caving.

* ''Film/TheProducers'': While Uma Thurman certainly tries to speak Swedish, it fails to the point of her lines having to be subtitled on Swedish releases. The whole thing is a bit odd since they managed to get some stuff right and some stuff plain odd. Like her "catchphrase", "''God dag min vännen''", which translates to "Hello my the friend". Probably it's a mistake for "''vänner''", which would make it "Hello my friends." But her accent is in no way Swedish, just generically North European, and apart from baby grammar, she indicates foreignness by referring to herself in the third person. Why this should sound "foreign" is anyone's guess, since pronouns are the first thing one learns.

** Igor Van Helman Stanisvlasky, a Romanian with a Russian, Dutch, North-German, Polish name.

** "Cho Chang" is usually cited as an example and almost sounds like [[ChingChong a slur]], so the Chinese translation renamed her "Zhāng Qiū" (which sounds somewhat similar).However, Cho could actually be a ''subversion'', likely in a case of AccidentallyCorrectWriting. The name can be interpreted to be rendered in the more archaic Wade-Giles romanization system (more commonly used by the "old-stock" Chinese diaspora). Cho Chang converts to "Zhuo Zhang" in modern Pinyin. Zhuo (倬) is a fairly common unisex given name in Chinese, and can be rendered in other perfectly valid given names in Chinese.

* Robert Ludlum is a faithful practitioner of this with Russian names like Nikolai Yurievich Yurievich. The English equivalent of this would be someone named Peterson Peterson. Russian middle names are patronymic, derived from the father's name, and Russian family names rarely end in -vich, unless the person is of Polish heritage.

* Raphael from ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', being Mexican, tends to interject phrases in Spanish when he speaks. In ''City of Ashes'', he tells Clary that Simon "no es muerto," which is incorrect; it should be "no ''está'' muerto." It seems like a classic Website/{{Google}} Translate error rather than it being intentional.

* The Auld Elvish used in ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'' (a [[SatireParodyPastiche parody]] of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'') is strings of nonsensical, vaguely foreign-sounding gibberish. Much of it is random English words mixed with foreign loan words, and a couple lines are [[FunetikAksent English with a phonetic accent]]. [[BlindIdiotTranslation The translations provided in the book also don't quite match up with the excerpts.]] [[https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/auldelv.htm Have a gander.]]

** While ‘’Park’’ is one of the most common Korean surnames, it's virtually never used as a given name.

* A minor example in Funimation's short lived uncut dub of ''Anime/YuGiOh'': in 4Kids' original English dub of the anime, most characters were subject to a DubNameChange. For example, Hiroto Honda was renamed to Tristan Taylor. For the uncut dub, a compromise was decided upon to use the dub's first name along with the original Japanese surname, so in this instance, Tristan Honda. The exception to this is the character known in the west as Joey Wheeler, as his first name is taken from the surname of his Japanese iteration, Katsuya Jonouchi. As a result, this dub named him Joey Katsuya, effectively giving him a personal name in place of a legitimate Japanese family name.

* German supermarket chain Lidl sells American food items (or rather, what Germans ''think'' "American food" is--lots of snack pastries, frozen meats and even things likes bagels and falafel) under the brand name "[=McEnnedy=]". Although it sounds a bit like "[[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy Kennedy]]", it's obviously not a real American (let alone Irish) last name.

** The Libyan terrorists from the [[Film/BackToTheFuture first film]] speak some vaguely Arabic-sounding nonsense language.

Amusingly: when this trope is applied to a character's name, it often results in a DubNameChange when a work is exported to the country where said character is supposed to be from--since the original name would sound ridiculous to audiences in that country who actually know the culture. For example: in the Japanese dub of ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'', Hikaru Sulu's name is "Hikaru Kato"; in most Japanese translations of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' works, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki are renamed "Yoshihama Takeshi" and "Oroku Sawaki"; and in the Chinese translations of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books, Cho Chang is renamed "Zhang Qiu".

* Invoked in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', which features a character named Dewey Jenkins who, as part of his hyper-stereotypical and misguided attempts at being a black power activist, gives his middle name as "Obababa Oooh [[Creator/MichaelJackson Mamase Mamasa Mamakusa]]." Huey, an actual activist, [[StopBeingStereotypical is less than amused]]

* The ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'' fad on Website/YouTube takes a scene from ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' and subtitling the German to make [[ThoseWackyNazis Hitler]] appear to be ranting about ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', his UsefulNotes/XBox, shoes, Fords or whatever the author feels like laying into. It's a sort of inverse GodwinsLaw, in that you start with Hitler, ''then'' begin the discussion. It also allows {{YouTube Poop}}s in just about any language (except German), since the point is less what the words mean and more [[SuddenlyShouting what they sound like.]] For example, expect any Game of Thrones themed Hitler Rant to Stannis in the subtitles when he mentions Stalin.

* The ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'' fad on Website/YouTube takes a scene from ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' and subtitling the German to make [[ThoseWackyNazis Hitler]] appear to be ranting about ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', his UsefulNotes/XBox, shoes, Fords or whatever the author feels like laying into. It's a sort of inverse GodwinsLaw, in that you start with Hitler, ''then'' begin the discussion. It also allows {{YouTube Poop}}s in just about any language (except German), since the point is less what the words mean and more [[SuddenlyShouting what they sound like.]]

* The non-English portion of the "gypsy drinking song" Creator/DannyKaye sings in ''Film/TheInspectorGeneral'' is actually a mix of Russian and Ukrainian folk music.

** The name of Durmstrang Institute sounds German, but doesn't actually mean anything (though it resembles "Sturm und Drang" - storm and stress). Just to make matters worse, Durmstrang is said to be located in far northern Europe (most probably northern Norway), not Germany.

** The name of Durmstrang Institute sounds vaguely German (possibly inspired by "Sturm und Drang" - storm and stress) but is actually complete nonsense. Just to make matters worse, Durmstrang is said to be located in far northern Europe (most probably northern Norway), not Germany.

* ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'':

** The name of Durmstrang Institute sounds vaguely German (possibly inspired by "Sturm und Drang" - storm and stress) but is actually complete nonsense. Just to make matters worse, Durmstrang is actually located in Scandinavia, not Germany.

** The name of Durmstrang Institute sounds vaguely German (possibly inspired by "Sturm und Drang" - storm and stress) but is actually complete nonsense. Besides, the school is actually located in Scandinavia, not Germany.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', many of the characters of non-British origin have names that do not fit their background.

* All of the ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' series are positively rife with foreign-ish names, some more successful than others. Might be justified because most of the series take place at an undetermined point in the future where Earth has become a One World Government and half of humanity lives in orbital colony superstructures. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 The one series]] with a date solidly pinned down in relation to modern day does fairly well with the names.
* ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' meanwhile takes place in the "real" world (albeit TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture), and yet features an African-American character named Nils Nielsen. Unless he has some Scandinavian ancestry, the name comes off as kind of odd.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Happens in-universe at the end, when Aragorn says he still kind of likes his old nickname "Strider" and will make in the name of his house -- after he translates it into the elven language Quenya. (Although he does actually know the language and doesn't mangle it. Incidentally, it comes out as the appropriately regal-sounding ''Telcontar''.)

** Light's name is not a translation of ''hikari'' (光), the Japanese word for "light". The kanji for "Moon" (月) has the English word "light" as a possible pronunciation for it when used as a name.
*** "Possible pronunciation for a name" in Japan is "whatever you want to call your child", but using "月" to be pronounced "Light" is... unusual, to say the least. Apparently the author chose that name so that it wouldn't cause bullying of someone with the same name as the character.

* In the Kyoto Arc of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', [[KidSamurai Yahiko]] come across three girls who say nothing but "chow" while gushing over a dog (an official Chinese translation just went with wingdings); he thinks to himself that they can't possibly be speaking Japanese. Considering the time period and that Yahiko, born and raised in Tokyo, is in Kyoto, it's probably a (rather well-known, actually) KansaiRegionalAccent joke. ("Chigau", a word meaning "that's wrong", gets shortened to "chau" in Kansai, and since the dog they're talking about is a Chow-Chow, Watsuki just had [[{{Pun}} a little too much fun with it.]])

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This tends to be even more common in Eastern works, where writers usually tend to have even less experience with other cultures, leading to results that would seem more at home in [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Middle-Earth]] than any existing place on Earth.

* Happens in-universe at the end of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', when Aragorn says he still kind of likes his old nickname "Strider" and will make in the name of his house — after he translates it into the elven language Quenya. (Although he does actually know the language and doesn't mangle it. Incidentally, it comes out as the appropriately regal-sounding ''Telcontar.'')

* The Auld Elvish used in ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'' (a [[SatireParodyPastiche parody]] of ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'') is strings of nonsensical, vaguely foreign-sounding gibberish. Much of it is random English words mixed with foreign loan words, and a couple lines are [[FunetikAksent English with a phonetic accent]]. [[BlindIdiotTranslation The translations provided in the book also don't quite match up with the excerpts.]] [[https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/auldelv.htm Have a gander.]]

* Much of Yoko Kanno's music from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' are in a pseudo-Frenchish language.

* For ''Anime/WeissKreuz'', Creator/TakehitoKoyasu apparently picked the name because "Weiss" sounded cool, and "Kreuz" sounded cool with it. Randomly from a German dictionary. This was after the producers firmly vetoed his original title: "Cat People". In English. (No, not [[Film/CatPeople that one]].) It really could have gone much worse.

* The meeting of the G8 Heads of State near the start of ''Film/TwentyTwelve'' sees the Russian president whispering to his translator in Serbo-Croatian.