Aliens Speaking English: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Graeme''': ''How come I can understand you? Are you using some sort of [[Translator Microbes|neural language router]]?''

 

As unlikely as it may seem, most alien species [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|can speak English]]—or [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe|Japanese]], or French, or whatever the language of the show's producers and intended demographic is. This has the added advantage that the characters can sometimes lapse into their native tongue when the [[Pardon My Klingon|script demands]].

 

{{examples}}

* Lum, Ten, and Lum's father from ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' speak Japanese, but Lum's mother cannot (her speech is rendered as [[Mahjong]] tiles). Rei can say just a few words, and Lum forgets Japanese for an entire episode after getting hit by a baseball.

** But... practically every alien other than Lum's mother is fluent. Benten, Oyuki, Ran, Elle, the taxi driver...

** Although apparently it did take some time for Lala to learn the written language.

** And English for that matter, when {{spoiler|Pikari lands in America and converses with a [[Fiery Redhead|ginger]] [[Cowboy|cowgirl]]. }}

* Completely averted in [[From Far Away]]. The [[Trapped in Another World]] main character can't speak a word of that world's language when she arrives, and spends a good hunk of the story gradually learning it so that she'll be able to communicate with people.

* When the girls of ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' are transported to Cephiro, they seem to take it for granted that everyone speaks Japanese. That is, until they meet Caldina and notice her [[Kansai Regional Accent]]. Then they start asking if there's an Osaka in Cephiro too.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]''. Keroro and other keronians/aliens (like mois) speak pefect Japanese/English. When asked about this by Fuyuki he counters by saying that Japanese/English sounds like Keronian.

* Used in [[DearS]] when Ren learns Japanese in one night by reading a single Japanese textbook. Justified because it's a genetic trait programed into the Dears to learn languages. How this also allows her to SPEAK Japanese however is [[Voodoo Shark|never explained]]

 

== Comic Books ==

 

 

* When the four arrive on C'hou in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', they immediately meet people who speak accented English (much to their relief). Everywhere else they go, everyone speaks English. However, early on, John and Ringo encounter several books in other languages, and Stal mentions that some names (Idri'en Tagen and Raleka) are “old language names.” And different races have different styles of names, suggesting derivation from different languages. As the four have other things to think about and are not linguists, they never delve into this topic.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Hunter Prey]]''

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [[Paul]], as demonstrated by the page quote

* Played with in [[Starman]], where the title character knows some of Earth's languages, but only from what was aboard Voyager II. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as he tries to comprehend simple phrases such as "Take it easy". He is a bit more fluent by the end, but still speaks in broken sentences.

 

 

== Literature ==

* [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' by the Babelfish, a very small organism that went into your ear and read brainwaves to act as a universal translator.

** The explanation was particularly elegant in that the Babel Fish is said to survive by "eating" unconscious thoughts and emotions from thinking beings around it, and the means by which it "processes" these thoughts leaves only the most superficial surface thoughts—i.e. the thoughts behind intentional, verbal communication -- "undigested" and excreted into the host's mind. In other words, it's an explanation for why it's a perfect translator ''and only a translator''. Whereas other times, when the Universal Translator works by some kind of telepathy, it leaves open the question of why you can't use it to tell you what the guy is thinking all the time rather than only when he's talking to you.

* In ''The Player of Games'' by [[Iain M Banks]], the narrator explains that although all dialogue takes place in either Marain (the official language of the Culture) or Eachic (the language spoken in the empire in which most of the story takes place), it has been translated into the (reader's) language, albeit in a cruder form. Banks exploits the 'translated for the reader' device to drop a couple of heavy hints about the reader's (that is, Earth) society. Probably the [[Anvilicious|least subtle]] is the long digression discussing how the third, dominant sex of the Azadians will be referred to by the pronouns of the dominant sex in the reader's society. In English, at least, all members of the 'apex' sex [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|are referred to as 'he'.]] ''Player of Games'' arguably constitutes an in-universe aversion of this trope, as it's a minor plot point that the different languages available, having evolved out of exceedingly different cultures, affect the way the protagonist thinks, and therefore acts, depending on which one he's using. As in, there are concepts common to Eachic inexpressible in Marain, and vice versa.

* Lampshaded in a ''[[Samurai Cat]]'' tale. The duo are on an alien ship trying to decipher the controls, and find that they're actually labelled in Japanese. Then they realise that, despite being from 17th century Japan, they were speaking English.

* In Christopher Stasheff's ''[[A Wizard in Rhyme]]'' series, the [[Ordinary High School Student]] protagonist transports himself to the story's alternate universe by deciphering a [[Summon Magic]] spell. The problem is, said alternate universe is a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy Counterpart Version]] of Medieval Europe, and he explicitly learned their version of French. Then he goes and has adventures with Italians, Germans/Austrians, even ''Muslims'', and yet there is no language barrier.

** French actually was a widely-used international language for quite a bit of the middle ages. Several of the people he meets are visibly uncomfortable with it as a second language (especially the Arabs), and he occasionally has to fall back on magical translation.

* Averted in ''[[The Sparrow]]''. The main character is a linguist and much of the plot, suspense, and character development comes from the aliens and humans learning each other's languages (and the meanings beyond the literal meanings of the words used).

* In Benedict Jacka's Fated, we have a variant with an ancient wizard sort of raised from the dead who can speak perfect english. But it's actualy a brilliant subversion because {{spoiler|Alex Verus realises through his own moment of Fridge Brilliance that the ancient wizard had to be reading his thoughts and learned english this way. Also kind of a chekhov's gun}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

** And, of course, the handwave doesn't explain the times where communication ''does'' become a problem, or where certain words get left in the original. If the translator doesn't translate the names of certain Klingon pets and foods, on the idea that the original word conveys information better than the translated word would, why doesn't that effect pepper the speech on other subjects? And why do characters sometimes have to hunt for a word in English, then give up and explain the concept they were getting at, since the word in their original language has no English equivalent?

*** Also, on the subject of the Original Series, some episodes have a justified use of English. The Iotians in "A Piece Of The Action" are established as an imitative culture, and they were exposed to English-speaking humans. Planet Eight-Ninety-Two IV was a parallel Roman development, meaning that Latin was probably spoken, which could have led to a transition to English upon contact with John Merrick. And John Gill shaped the Nazi planet; he probably taught the aliens English.

** Not handwaved in ''Enterprise'', because Hoshi was there to serve as a translator. Possibly the advanced alien species the crew came in contact with had their own version of a universal translator and thus could communicate with the crew.

*** Which also explains why Uhura was a translator in the 09 reboot - the UT wasn't invented yet or was in development.

** It often plays the trope straight, however, when aliens invade Earth. The series four finale features {{spoiler|Daleks that speak German when they invade Germany. Exterminieren! Exterminieren!}}

** At one point in the original series, it's stated that the translation is supposed to be unnoticeable. The fact that Sarah Jane Smith stops to wonder why she can understand Italian is evidence to the Doctor that something is wrong.

* The 456 in ''[[Torchwood]]: Children of Earth'' speak actual English. The characters make note of it and it has a certain significance. {{spoiler|Along with the hour at which they choose to speak, it indicates that the 456 are addressing Great Britain, with which they've already had secret dealings.}}

 

One of the first theories they come up with is that English is the language spoken by the majority of humans; Ianto points out that this would actually be Mandarin Chinese.

** Now try explaining that when the Goa'uld haven't been a major power on Earth since ~3,000 BC.

** Becomes particularly [[Egregious]] in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', when they go on their very first off-world mission ''without a linguist'', and suddenly everyone turns out to speak English there too. And most egregiously that includes the holograms and flashbacks of the Ancients - yes, the very same Ancients whose ''specific not-even-remotely-English'' language has been heard and seen written down all across the span of the previous series.

** Worse yet, tau'ri are practically the only humans in the universe exhibiting multiple languages - it's harder to understand the Russians than the humans from another galaxy who didn't even have ancestors on Earth!

** Mostly averted thus far in ''[[Stargate Universe]]''. The entire ship, control panels and all, is nothing but Ancient writing, and the one alien species they've come across thus far is apparently incapable of speaking English. Said species can still write English, but that's justified since they [[Mind Probe]]d Rush beforehand and probably got the basics.

** Openly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the "Wormhole X-Treme!" episode. Two of the crew get into an argument over whether they should have the off-world food be alien in appearance. When one demands whether the viewers will willingly suspend their disbelief in seeing a normal apple on an alien world, the other retorts it's not half-as-bad as all of the aliens speaking English.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has a longstanding aversion of this trope—the aliens all speak their own languages, and often have noticeable accents when they speak in English, if they speak in English at all. The ultimate example in this show would be Kosh, whose language is so strange it must be mechanically translated, and even then it is rarely comprehensible. Also of note is that mechanical translators are nothing near [[Translator Microbes]] : They must be tailor-made for a certain language, are of clearly visible size, have a stiff, monotonous sound, and are looked down upon by most species. [[Translation Convention]] applies when two aliens of the same species are conversing in private, per [[Word of God]].

* ''[[Crusade]]'', the [[Too Good to Last|short-lived]] sequel series to ''[[Babylon 5]]'', played with this trope in its [[Homage]] episode to ''[[The X-Files]]'', "Visitors From Down The Street". After rescuing a pair of aliens of a previously-unknown race who unexpectedly speak English, the Excalibur is hailed by an alien ship—again in English. Captain Gideon comments sarcastically that either they're the same race as the others, or there's one hell of a busy English teacher running around that part of the galaxy.

* The various screen adaptations of ''[[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]]'' all feature the Mongonians speaking flawless English, with no explanation as to why. The [[Flash Gordon (TV series)|2007 series]] [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it, but still doesn't explain.

** The novelization of the [[Flash Gordon (film)|1980s film]] explains that Ming, not wanting to waste countless hours teaching his prisoners the language, had the knowledge beamed into their brains while they were transported to Mongo.

* With a case of demons speaking English, in ''[[Angel]]'' the inhabitants of the demon dimension Pylea speak English and communicate with dimensional travellers without problem, but their books are still written in strange demonic tongue that takes effort from a person familiar with the dialect to translate.

** Speaking of 'Angel' - why on Earth is Illyria speaking perfect unaccented English? Considering that the creature lived when humans hadn't yet come into being or were little more than apes, one would expect it to have a real, REAL lot of trouble understanding any human language. Of course, one could assume that Illyria absorbed the knowledge of English automatically from its 'shell'. Still, it should have been given at least some time to process and learn to apply that knowledge.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[ALF]]'', Willie's radio intercepts ALF's spaceship and then ALF's voice comes out, but he appears to be speaking a different language. Then, when ALF is brought into the house, he not only speaks English, but he speaks English fluently, tells pop culture jokes and apparently, so do other Melmacians. Also, anytime that we see a book from Melmac, it is in English. How contradictory!

* ''Tracker'' subverted this with Cole, who had to learn English after landing. Zin, however, spoke it fairly well.

* [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] travels to Rome, Brittania, Africa, India, China, and Japan, yet never runs into language barriers.

* Every Orkan alien from ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'' seems to speak English.

* Parodied in ''[[Hyperdrive]]'', in which the aliens speak their own language that, by pure coincidence, is exactly the same as English.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Feng Shui]]'''s GM section notes that just like in Hong Kong movies, everyone in the setting speaks perfect contemporary Cantonese, from Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs to the Prime Minister of Belgium to the bio-engineered abominations of the future—and in your games, everything's being translated into English, including the puns. To heck with realism.

* Inverted in the ''Warhammer40k'' universe. No-one speaks English, not even the humans of the setting. Xenos races speak [[Indo-European Alien Language|their]] [[Starfish Language|own]] languages ([[The Voiceless|if they bother to speak at all]]), and humans of the Imperium speak [[Altum Videtur|High or Low Gothic]].

** Of course, all of the criminals featured so far can also speak GET, so it can't be ''too'' uncommon... then again, anyone who couldn't get past the interview process for being unable to speak the same language as everyone else wouldn't be on the show anyway.

* Parodied in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' by Officer Zodboink, who speaks multiple Earth languages but can't keep them straight, e.g. "Hasta la wiedersehen!"

* According to [[Dragon Tails|Norman]], aliens would probably speak with a slight French inflection. "We come in le peace!"

* In ''[[Freefall]]'', Sam Starfall speaks English just fine, possibly learning it from the human scientists that discovered he had stowed away on their ship.

* Inverted in ''[[Alien Dice]]'', English is actually a dialect of Galactic Standard introduced by a bunch of [[Human Aliens|Rishaan]] who were dumped on Earth.

** {{spoiler|Presumably Sburb would want all the players destined to enter the Medium to speak the same language...in particular, one that happens to be the namesake of [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Big Bad]] Lord English.}}

* Justified in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Uryuoms have the abilty to learn (or teach) any language by rubbing their antennae on a person's forehead (or presumably anywhere close to their brain) for about three seconds. They can only do this kind of thing with languages though.

* Inverted and Justified in ''The Accidental Space Spy'' - when the human character asks "How come all aliens are speaking English?", they explain that the someone [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/thorsby/spacespy/series.php?view=archive&chapter=48599#193466 hid mind control devices on a lot of planets], which gradually turn one of the planet's languages into Vricaltian. The culprit? {{spoiler|The Vricaltian Tourist Agency. To make it easier for tourists.}}

* Interplanar aversion in ''[[Planescape Survival Guide]]'', as it turns out when the cast make it to the first world (earth) [[Common Tongue|Common]] has nothing in common with English.

* On the planet in ''[[Verlore Geleentheid]]'' Afrikaans is evidently the dominant language (some English is spoken too). But considering it's somehow identical to South Africa in every way save for [[Schizo-Tech|some]] of the technology and the fact that the inhabitants aren't human that is to be expected.

* In ''[[Winters in Lavelle]]'', all of the humans in Lavelle (so far) speak English. However, it's averted hard with the Gard, a species of (rather violent, it seems) half-deer men. They all speak Gardish, and the only one shown to be able to speak English so far is Xan- though his grasp on it is [[Strange Syntax Speaker|rather]] [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|tenuous.]]

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Land Games]]'': Averted, the Woken speak in their natural language, which Jayle can somewhat understand. They have no trouble understanding spoken English though.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'', as explained [http://journal-of-murazrai.xanga.com/755247488/page-104-random-chaos-fighters-tidbit-1/ here]. However, it is noted that initially communications were done using pictures and animations at first before the aliens learned English during cultural exchange and spread out to the entire universe. ''Beyond The Earth'', set in 2012 however use [[Aliens Steal Cable|special spells]] as an excuse and apparently they were doing that long before the incidents in the installment started.

* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' calls Aliens Speaking English [http://www.cracked.com/article_18721_the-5-stupidest-ways-movies-deal-with-foreign-languages_p2.html The 2nd Stupidest Way Movies Deal with Foreign Languages].

 

== Western Animation ==

* This was parodied in an animated segment of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. African humans encounter aliens, who must consult an English-Swahili dictionary to translate.

* In ''[[Johnny Test]]'', this is Lampshaded when they meet a race of Vegan aliens and Johnny states that it's good that they speak English.

* In the '80s ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, upon meeting [[Usagi Yojimbo|Miyamoto Usagi]] for the first time (brought over through a dimensional portal) Raphael points out, "He's not only from an alternate dimension, but also ancient Japan. So naturally, he speaks English."

** In the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|new series]] an alien arrives and while at first speak a foreign language, the [[Translator Microbes|collar]] she wears is activated to translate it into English.

{{quote|"Hey!" "What?" "''Hey!''" "''What?''" "Hey!!" "What?!"

* Lampshaded on a ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' cartoon. The aliens spoke in their native tongue for awhile, then freeze framed as an animated [[Stan Lee]] came out and said "For the convenience of those who don't speak Alien, we'll have them speak English for the rest of the episode."

* Whilst not aliens (although, the jury is out on the Olmecs), everyone in ''The Mysterious Cities of Gold'' speaks the same language (which you would assume is Spanish). Whilst it may be logical for some of the Native Tribes to have some people amongst them who had learned the Spanish Language by the time Esteban and co arrive in South America, it certainly doesn't explain why every little village girl, hidden tribe and TAO (who had been alone on an isolated island until meeting Esteban and Zia) could speak Spanish.

* The titular character of ''[[Muzzy in Gondoland]]'' is an alien speaking English in a cartoon that ''teaches'' English.

* 1973-74 ''[[Superfriends]]'' episodes "The Power Pirate", "Too Hot To Handle", "The Balloon People" and "The Watermen". The aliens in all of these episodes spoke perfect English with no explanation.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]