The trope isn't actually either of those. It's "Things that are funnier/cooler/etc. if you can speak another language." It covers a bit of both of those, but not all of those.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
You gotta get yourself some marble columns
If it's neither of those the example section needs severe pruning, and the wicks probably do too.
The child is father to the man —Oedipus
It's not so much neither of those as both of those, but not quite. It's like a Ven diagram. It covers what it covers, both of the things you mentioned are often covered, but the actual trope is something different that just happens to encapsulate large bits of the other two theories. It's more, most of both of those and some other junk.
edited 29th Nov '10 11:42:04 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
The Laconic is "Background content in a foreign language," which seems to cover both of those just fine, although I would prefer something about being enhanced in some way by knowledge of the language in question to dodge some of the overlap with Gratuitous Foreign Language.
Rhymes with "Protracted."
Zzzzzzzzzz
It pretty much covers anytime that knowing a foreign language gets you a little something extra — a joke, a Meaningful Name, a pun, an extra dollop of insight into a character... any bonus that's only for those who know the other language.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The two being:
So if I name a character Svetlana Flores, that's Type 1; if she speaks in Spanish or Russian and I leave my reader to puzzle it out, that's Type 2.
I'm not convinced these are really the same trope. If someone wants to try to convince me, I'm all ears. Otherwise I'd suggest either splitting this or moving the Type 2 examples to Gratuitous Foreign Language.
The child is father to the man —Oedipus