History Main / PoirotSpeak

* Used to delineate Roman speech from Gaulish speech in ''{{Asterix}}''. Both mostly talk normally, but Romans drop in Latin phrases and words and use normal idioms with HoldYourHippogriffs Latin words substituted in. The Iberians speak like this too, adding in 'ay yai yai' and 'olé' in their otherwise normal speech. The most obvious example, however, is the Britons in the original French version, who speak in a garbled form of French that uses English-ish grammar (Obelix asks "why are you talking backwards?"), literally translated English idioms ("Bonté gracieuse!"), stereotypical second-language mistakes (using 'vous' instead of 'tu' with family members, mixing up genders) and plays on French people trying to learn English (tortured idioms and "mon taillure est riche", a reference to the bizarre and famous first sentence spoken on the ''Assimil: English sans Piene'' language learning vinyls ubiquitous in France in the 1960s).

* Not quite an example, but Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "Taco Grande" is mostly in English with some whole sentences in very simple Spanish. Anyone who took even a year of Spanish [[BilingualBonus should be able to figure out what they mean]]. This doesn't include the lengthy Spanish monologue, which was written in English and translated by a bilingual Scotti Bros. Records employee.
** And read aloud in the song by spanish-speaking actor Cheech Marin.

The TropeNamer is Creator/AgathaChristie's Literature/HerculePoirot, a Belgian detective who used this mode of speaking to [[ObfuscatingStupidity lead suspects to think]] he's simply a FunnyForeigner. See also GratuitousForeignLanguage and AsLongAsItSoundsForeign, wherein nobody's supposed to understand ''any'' of the words. Has some degree of TruthInTelevision, as slipping into your native tongue is rather common for those who are not completely fluent with a foreign language.

*** Just because she understands it doesn't mean she's used to speaking it.

** Used frequently in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/124263/1/songs-uncle-sings/sineva Songs Uncle Sings, ''FanFic/RacerAndTheGeek'', [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/1/i-did-not-want-to-die/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die]], and [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/106068/1/relax/intimacy Relax.]]

[[caption-width-right:346:'''''[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 MMFMMF!]] [[HeWhoMustNotBeHeard MMFMMF!]]''''']]

While national diversity is often used among fictional {{ensembles}} to add distinction and character, authors have a habit of [[{{Anvilicious}} making it a little blatant.]] Granted, [[TropesAreTools this isn't necessarily bad]], but this means that foreigners are almost expected to mix English and their own language while applying a [[JustAStupidAccent ridiculous accent]], [[{{Malaproper}} mixing words]], or using [[BluntMetaphorsTrauma confusing idioms]].

For example, while the writers may not assume ViewersAreMorons, it's almost guaranteed a Russian will drop articles like "the" or "a/an", ''but will inconsistently have no problem saying complex words like "skateboard" or "movie theater" in perfect English'' (unless [[PlayedForLaughs it has humorous appeal]]).

->''"Do ho ho! That slaps me on the knee!"''

* In ''InglouriousBasterds'', recognizable words in the French and German dialogue are occasionally reproduced untranslated in the subtitles, producing a PoirotSpeak-like effect even though the characters are speaking entirely in their own languages.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}''.

--> Karl: Mein name is Karl, ich bin Expert!

* Herald Alberich from MercedesLackey's HeraldsOfValdemar series routinely speaks Valdemaran with Karsite word order. He was born and raised in Karse and only ended up in Valdemar after being kidnapped/rescued by a [[IntellectualAnimal Companion]], who eventually psychically fed Valdemarian vocabulary into his head... and ''only'' vocabulary, leading Alberich to use Valdemarian words with Karsite grammar.

* Due to the popularity of India-based outsourcing, this is quite common in the IT industry; particularly the US and Great Britain. Typically it's an English vocabulary combined with Hindi grammar and idiomatic usage. The degree to which the trope applies depends on how fluent the speaker is in English. On the extreme non-fluent end, it ofen ends up with a collection of English words arranged in an almost incomprehensible (to a non-Hindi speaker) structure.

** It has more to do with convenience, similar to bilingual case, then undergraduate education. For example in conversation in Polish I can drop words like "coursework" etc. Usually it is aversion of PoirotSpeak as the words borrowed tend to be connected with specialisation - not generic ones.
** This is common in other countries as well, thanks to almost all international publication and communication in the sciences being in English. For example, while there are German terms for some bioscience terms (and you could legitimately invent translations for the rest), they aren't really in use anymore. These days, it's less work writing your Bachelor's thesis entirely in English than try and translate all the technical terms into unwieldy German for your pedantic professor. You're going to have to learn it anyway, if you ever want to publish anything, so why not start early? They've even started introducing Master courses that are conducted entirely in English, to prepare the students and because it's just easier to stick to one language.

*** To make that just a little bit worse, both Hebrew and Yiddish is involved. On rare occasions, the kids may have learned a bissel Ladino as well.

* This is also the case in places in East Asia who are making strong attempts to intigrate English into their schools and workplaces. The result is "Konglish" (Korean/English), "Japanglish" (Japanese/English) or "Chinglish" (Chinese/English).
* Sometimes, when two people who know only a little bit of the other person's language are talking together (say, English and German), then if the english-speaker knows enough german to basically package the english in a german format, it makes comprehension much easier.
* The EnglishPremierLeague attracts a lot of foreign players and it is interesting to contrast those who learn English and then move, with those who move then learn English. The former usually do speaking English with an accent - either their native or American, while the latter often acquire some of the dialect local to the club they play for. A particular treat is a player who was exposed to some English at home but hasn't yet taken formal lessons and is picking up stuff from team mates and listening to the crowd. It incorporates this trope for their general utterances mingled with odd phrases in a broad local accent when talk turns to actually describing the football.

** They're called "dialects", but most of them are about as closely related as English and German(or further).
* Indonesian language is downright, even shamelessly syncretic; although 60% of the words in Indonesian are both derived from Arabic (markas/markaz, "center") and traditional Malay, Indonesians also happily use derivatives from Spanish (kemeja "shirt"), Portuguese (Minggu, from Domingo, "Sunday") and more prominently, Dutch (kulkas, from koelkast, "Refrigerator"). To make matters worse and in line with this trope, is the local dialects, in which anyone will pepper their standard Indonesian with local equivalents, such as the almost nationally popular Jakartan dialect, Javan, Sundanese and Batak/Minang. Then there's the great national pastime of acronymizing every word in existence like it's going out of style.

* The French fantail pigeon Sakuya lets slip a "Tu dis des balivernes!"[[hottip:*:"You speak nonsense!"]] during a stressful moment in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend''. Otherwise he uses Japanese (or translated English) perfectly. His brother Yuuya, who was born in Japan, lived in France for some time, and then moved back likes using French greetings and farewells, once teasingly tells Sakuya "Non, non, non!" and calls the protagonist "Mon amie" most of the time, but this appears to be a playful affectation. In a moment of stress he just says "[[PrecisionFStrike Shit.]]"

* ''MadTV'' has a recurring sketch of well-known American TV shows "dubbed" into Spanish; they use English sentence structure, and words that the average American wouldn't recognize are simply said in English. ("Pero Jack, si Sr. Roper sabe que tu eres heterosexual, él va a evict-te.")

* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/kalash93 Kalash93]] uses this trope a fair amount when dealing with foreign languages, particularly wehn the characters are not native English speakers.

** Sometimes also with non-foreign characters; Gambit the Cajun lapsed into something vaguely like French at the drop of a hat.

* CyranoDeBergerac: Lampshaded by Ragueneau at Act II Scene VII, who hears only a few words spoken in Gascon dialect to realize that [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy The Cadets are a regiment composed of Gascons]]… and to be fearful of them [[SociopathicHero (they have a reputation)]]. Notice those are the only Gascon words in the play (apart from some in Act IV), because the Gascon Cadets all talk in [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish SurprisinglyGoodFrench]]:

While national diversity is often used among fictional {{ensembles}} to add distinction and character, authors have a habit of [[{{Anvilicious}} making it a little blatant.]] Granted, [[TropesAreTools this isn't necessarily bad]], but this means that foreigners are almost expected to mix English and their own language while applying a [[JustAStupidAccent ridiculous accent]], [[{{Malaproper}} mixing words]], or [[BluntMetaphorsTrauma confusing idioms]].

** The fact that Starfire does this is even more vexing, considering her entire understanding of the English language stems from a direct psychic download from a native speaker, meaning she should have instant and near-perfect understanding of the language. The ''only'' words from her own language she should be using are ones without direct translations.