History Main / BilingualBackfire

* Welsh regiments of the British Army often used Welsh in their communications, thinking that the obscurity of the language would keep it secure. This generally worked, but apparently backfired on the guardsmen on some occasions during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as Welsh was surprisingly widely studied in Nazi circles, since it was considered an example of early Aryan languages.[[note]]It was still used in the Far East for comms, as the chances of there being Welsh-speaking Japanese was held to be vanishingly small.[[/note]]. Later during the Falklands War, the British Army decided against using Welsh in their communications to prevent this trope from occurring not because ArgentinaIsNaziLand, but because Argentina has a well-established Welsh-speaking community in Patagonia who could probably have exploited this trope. Welsh soldiers serving in Northern Ireland also had to be reminded that the two major local universities, as well as the principal ones in the Republic, all had Celtic Studies departments where Welsh was taught to students. Therefore the chances of there being Republicans listening in to radio comms and being able to understand every word was very high indeed.

When two characters try HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier, talking about someone else who is present in a language the third party supposedly doesn't speak, and the third party turns out to speak that language ''just fine'', it's a Bilingual Backfire.

[[caption-width-right:300:Defenitely why you should be careful when your'e talking about other people, because one day, '''they're gonna stump you.''']]

* ''The Dark Crusader'' (a.k.a. ''Black Shrike'') by Alistair [=MacLean=]. The protagonists start planning their escape in front of their Korean guard, who curtly tells them in English to shut up.

[[caption-width-right:350:Defenitely why you should be careful when your'e talking about other people, because one day, '''they're gonna stump you.''']]

%%Defenitely why you should be careful when your'e talking about other people, because one day, '''they're gonna stump you.'''
[[quoteright:300:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cloud_4_7_7.png]]]]

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cloud_4_7_7.png]]]]
%%Defenitely why you should be careful when your'e talking about other people, because one day, '''they're gonna stump you.'''

%%

* In the webcomic ''Bodysuit'', the name of the diner Kevin frequents translates to [[http://megazone23pt2.deviantart.com/art/Bodysuit-65-534518095 shithole]].

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'': In Episode 4, Sean (a mixed-race, bilingual American boy whose father was originally from Mexico) is accosted by a pair of racist men who demand that he disparage himself in Spanish for their entertainment. The player can choose to have Sean make a YourMom joke while pretending to comply. In a {{Downplayed}} example of this trope, the guys really ''don't'' speak Spanish, but they ''do'' know enough basic vocabulary to make out "madre" and figure the rest out for themselves, which goes down about as well as you'd expect.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'': In Episode 4, Sean (a mixed-race American boy whose father was originally from Mexico) is accosted by a pair of racist men who demand that he disparage himself in Spanish for their entertainment. The player can choose to have Sean make a YourMom joke while pretending to comply. In a {{Downplayed}} example of this trope, the guys really ''don't'' speak Spanish, but they ''do'' know enough basic vocabulary to make out "madre" and figure the rest out for themselves, which goes down about as well as you'd expect.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'': In Episode 4, Sean (a mixed-race American boy whose father was originally from Mexico) is accosted by a pair of racist men who demand that he disparage himself in Spanish for their entertainment. The player can choose to have Sean make a YourMom joke instead. In a {{Downplayed}} example of this trope, the guys really don't speak Spanish, but they know enough to make out "madre" and figure the rest out for themselves, which goes down about as well as you'd expect.

* In Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'', when the rednecks humiliate Sean by forcing him to insult himself in Spanish, there is an option to actually insult them instead. Too bad for Sean, the rednecks understand the word "[[YourMom madre]]".

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'': In Episode 4, Sean (a mixed-race American boy whose father was originally from Mexico) is accosted by a pair of racist men who demand that he disparage himself in Spanish for their entertainment. The player can choose to have Sean make a YourMom joke instead. In a {{Downplayed}} example of this trope, the guys really don't speak Spanish, but they know enough to make out "madre" and figure the rest out for themselves, which goes down about as well as you'd expect.

* Wrestling/{{Bayley}} for a while was talked down upon by the rest of Damage CTRL (Wrestling/IyoSky, [[Wrestling/KanakoUrai Asuka]] and Kairi Sane) and whenever the three of them did, they always did it in Japanese to make sure Bayley wouldn't catch them. However... when Bayley was choosing her opponent for Wrestling/WrestleMania and the rest of Damage CTRL was laughing at her, Bayley then turns to the 3 and asks if they are done laughing before saying "watashi wakaru yo" which is "I understand" in Japanese, which shocked the other three revealing she has overheard and picked up on Japanese lingo.

* Wrestling/{{Bayley}} for a while was talked down upon by the rest of Damage CTRL(Iyo Sky, Asuka and Kairi Sane) and whenever the three of them did, they always did it in Japanese to make sure Bayley wouldn't catch them. However... when Bayley was choosing her opponent for Wrestling/WrestleMania and the rest of Damage CTRL was laughing at her, Bayley then turns to the 3 and asks if they are done laughing before saying "watashi wakaru yo" which is I understand in Japanese which shocked the other 3 revealing she has overheard and picked up on Japanese lingo

* According to Mark Subotnick, a producer at Sega of America at the time, the prospective UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast launch title ''Geist Force'' [[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/12/yuji-naka-killed-dreamcasts-star-fox-says-former-sega-producer was killed by one of these]]. Late in development, Creator/YujiNaka visited the game's American development studio with Sonic Team, checking out the tools and proprietary engine, and then started openly talking about plans to both swipe some of the technology for ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and poach one engineer who knew the system for Sonic Team, assuming no one in the American team knew Japanese. Unfortunately for him, many of the American developers were fluent in Japanese and understood everything he said, which led to the project's five lead engineers resigning from the project and ultimately resulted in ''Geist Force'' being canceled for lack of manpower to finish it.

* Wrestling/{{Bayley}} for a while was talked down upon by the rest of Damage CTRL(Iyo Sky, Asuka and Kairi Sane) and whenever the three of them did, they always did it in Japanese to make sure Bayley wouldn't catch them. However... when Bayley was choosing her opponent for Wrestling/WrestleMania and the rest of Damage CTRL was laughing at her, Bayley then turns to the 3 and asks if they are done laughing before saying "watashi wakaru yo" which is I understand in Japanese which shocked the other 3.

* Wrestling/Bayley for a while was talked down upon by the rest of Damage CTRL(Iyo Sky, Asuka and Kairi Sane) and whenever the three of them did, they always did it in Japanese to make sure Bayley wouldn't catch them. However... when Bayley was choosing her opponent for WrestleMania and the rest of Damage CTRL was laughing at her, Bayley then turns to the 3 and asks if they are done laughing before saying "watashi wakaru yo" which is I understand in Japanese which shocked the other 3.