Completely Unnecessary Translator: Difference between revisions

* A variation occurs in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]''; [[Magnificent Bastard|Hans Landa]] asks a French farmer he is interrogating if they can switch to English during their conversation [[Blatant Lies|because his French is so bad]] and he knows the farmer is also conversant in English. {{spoiler|He does this so that he can openly converse about the fact that he knows the man is hiding Jews in the house, supposing (correctly) that they won't understand what is being said.}}

* Done in ''[[Team America: World Police]]'' with Kim Jong-Il and a terrorist wearing a fuzzy pink top hat.

* In ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'', Jack Ryan is brought to Russia and asked to work as a translator. The Russian in question asks Ryan if he's read his dossier. Ryan says he has, and starts listing biographical information about the man. Including the fact that in college, he got his highest grades in English. The Russian drops the act immediately after that.

 

* This was done in ''[[The West Wing]]'' they had to find someone who spoke an obscure language so they found a Cook who spoke it and Portuguese and had some translate the Portuguese, only to find out the guy spoke perfect English.

** Also occurred in a US-China summit. The Chinese Premier spoke perfect English but all official meeting was conducted with a translator as per the usual diplomatic protocol. Switching language for anything more than pleasantries could be interpreted an act of subservience, and would lead to a loss of diplomatic face.

* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', when the Russian general was first introduced he came with a [[Tactful Translation|Tactful Translator]]. When Daniel Jackson revealed he understood everything the general was saying, the General then revealed he was fluent in English anyway.

 

 

*** However, this extends to things such as restaurants having nearly a dozen dialects in their menus, because Spanish ''isn't'' agreed upon by everyone, and some would say was forced on them. Notably, some Catalans want to secede due to legitimate cultural differences, showing that this goes beyond trivial or unnecessary.

** Shown in ''The Special Relationship'' biopic, [[Michael Sheen]]'s [[Tony Blair]] has just been elected Prime Minister. His advisor tells him that the French President Jacques Chirac is on the line to congratulate him. Even though Chirac knows English, the advisor tells Blair that he'll probably speak French as a political statement. In response, Blair, who knows French, replies in English.

* Like the diplomatic examples, translators are often used by people appearing in judicial courts or other official settings. They may be fluent enough to get by day-to-day usage in their non-native language, but worry that it's not enough for legal or other specialised usage.

* This trope hit [[Sergio Aragones]] at least once. Aragones had been booked for a convention in Texas, but the con staff took the running gags of Aragones' inability to speak English from his comics (especially ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]'') as the truth.<ref>it was at one point [[Truth in Television]], with "one point" being "up until the mid-'60s" -- when Aragones emigrated from Spain with his family they first settled in Mexico, before deciding to try his luck in America as a cartoonist. Along the way, he had not had an opportunkty to be proficient in English. At MAD, he at first tried to enlist Antonio Prohias (of ''[[Spy vs. Spy]]'') to translate for him, but the Cuban-born Prohias was even ''less'' proficient in English than Aragones, and Aragones at times ended up having to try to translate for Prohias. However, by the '70s, he was conversant in English.</ref> They hired an interpreter to translate for Aragones without realizing that he spoke very good English. However, Aragones felt bad about the interpteter going home unpaid, and so he played along, letting the translator field questions, interpreting them into Spanish for Aragones, who would reply in Spanish for the translator to relay to the congoers.

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[[Category:Translation Tropes]]