Basic Trope: Characters can't communicate because they don't share a language.
- Straight: Ema is Czech and doesn't speak English. She travels to Great Britain, but she cannot communicate with locals and feels lost.
- Exaggerated:
- Ema cannot even use body language or gestures because they do not correspond and they make the situation even more confusing.
- Despite not being able to communicate, she still refuses to learn their language.
- Downplayed:
- Ema has an English-Czech/Czech-English dictionary with basic phrases which helps her to deal a bit, but overall it's not very helpful.
- Ema understands the locals, but the locals don't understand her.
- There is one local who can understand and speak her language.
- Justified: Ema has never studied English because she learnt German in school instead.
- Inverted: Everybody in Great Britain speaks Czech fluently.
- Subverted:
- But wait, Ema does in fact speak very good English! She was faking it to see how people would react to a helpless foreigner.
- Ema feels hopeless, but she meets Ela, another Czech woman who lives in Britain. Ela speaks English and starts interpreting for her.
- Double Subverted: Ema is glad that Ela would interpret and translate for her, but she sadly finds out that Ela's English is inadequate, and both women feel equally lost.
- Parodied: Ema's opener in Great Britain is "Do you speak English?" Surprisingly, she speaks good English, yet when she tries to talk to people, they answer her in English that they don't understand her or try to speak in other foreign languages, no matter how badly insisting that this way the communication will be more efficient.
- Zig Zagged: Ema and Ela, two Czech women who don't speak any English at all, come to Britain. They think that international words will help them and that they would eventually understand. They make some friends, but they are not British. They are actually Polish and they also do not speak English. They are able to communicate mixing Czech and Polish because it's mutually understandable, but they still need to understand and speak English. They decide to frequent English lessons, but they do not have even elementary skills and their teacher cannot explain them anything. Disappointed, they leave the course because it just feels vain. They agree that they will probably never learn any English whatsoever.
- Averted:
- Aliens Speaking English
- Communication problems are not an issue. Ema doesn't need to talk to anybody. She just wants to travel, see the sights and return home.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Ema speaks Czech and somehow, Brits do understand her. When they speak English, she is able to catch their basic meaning, too.
- Ema owns a cool translating machine which makes her understand everything. When English is spoken, she hears the speech in Czech. When she speaks Czech, they hear it in English.
- Enforced:
- The network wanted a Funny Foreigner in the show.
- It was central to the headlines the story was ripped from.
- The producers were ordered by their sponsor to promote/advertise the Czech/English dictionary set they sell.
- Lampshaded:
- "May I say that it's weird that you don't know a single word in English, and yet you came to Great Britain?" — "You may."
- "Isn't is strange that you live in Great Britain and don't speak English?" — "I know. It's like from Dark Blue World. That film about Czech pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain."
- Invoked: Ema specifically wanted to go somewhere where she cannot understand the language in order to impose a challenge on herself.
- Exploited: A stranger takes advantage of Eva's inability to communicate with the locals. She loses money in the process.
- Defied: "Hey, Eva, you speak good English, don't you? Wouldn't you come with me and Ela to Great Britain so that we could communicate?" — "Fine."
- Discussed: "Would you like to travel to Great Britain with me?" — "Perhaps, but I don't speak English, so I would probably feel very lost there. And you don't speak any foreign language either."
- Conversed: "Have you noticed this recurring plot in movies where two characters can't talk because they don't speak one common language?" — "Yes! And sometimes they even invent their own communication system!"
- Implied: Ema lives in Great Britain and she never speaks to anybody. The audience thinks she might not speak English at all.
- Played For Laughs: Ema greets everyone with "Ahoj!" (Czech for 'hello'). Everyone thinks that Ahoj is her name.
- Played For Drama: Ema enters a mysterious world where everyone can't speak in English. Due to having difficulty communicating with the people, she can't buy any food, nor can she rent a room at an inn. Even worse, everyone treats Ema as an outcast and refuses to talk to her.
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