Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Difference between revisions

Alice, Bob and Claire all speak Language A, which is usually the language the work is written in or translated into, and may be the "common" language of the world. But Alice and Bob also speak Language B, which may be their native language, while Claire does not, enabling them to have private conversations if Claire is in earshot or they know Claire is eavesdropping.

To qualify, Alice and Bob must also speak a language Claire can speak, and Claire's inability to understand the language must be her only obstacle to understanding it; if she's deaf and unable to read lips, it doesn't matter whether she can speak Alice and Bob's language.

This trope can also be used to keep information from the audience, depending on whether a translation is provided. If the language is real and not translated, it can be a [[Bilingual Bonus]].

* In [[The Boondock Saints|the 2nd Boondock Saints movie]], Romeo speaks Spanish to his uncle to ask his uncle not to embarrass him in front of the [[Mac Manus]]MacManus brothers. He doesn't realize they know Spanish too.

* In the first season of ''[[24|Twenty Four]]'', Jack and a police officer are pursuing a suspect, when they see a bystander and the officer yells in Spanish for the bystander to get down. The suspect takes the officer hostage, and Jack yells for her to fight back in Spanish. The suspect is captured but the officer dies in the process.

* An episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has a Chinese mother and daughter talk in Mandarin so House won't understand. [[Subverted Trope|Of course]], he speaks it. Another House example has House blackmailing a guy in Mandarin. Presumably, if he didn't get his money he'd repeat what he said in English.

* In ''[[Frasier]]'', Frasier and Niles have to speak French around Eddie the dog in order to not get him unnecessarily riled up over a potential walk.

* In ''[[Revenge (TV series)|Revenge]]'', Emily offers to act as a translator when Daniel is having dinner with a Japanese investor. The "investor" is actually Emily's mentor, and the two of them spend the dinner talking about Emily's revenge plots while Emily makes up translations for Daniel.

* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Ted and Barney befriend a Russian bouncer who takes them to an underground poker game. Ted ends up winning a lot of money from the other players who are very shady and dangerous looking. Just as it looks like Ted is going to get killed, the bouncer intercedes, shouts a few phrases in Russian and things quickly cool down. Ted and Barney are grateful to have made such a great friend but do not realize that he actually told the other players that he plans to rob Ted and Barney and will return everyone's money when he is done.

* Happens and also discussed in ''[[Northern Exposure]]''. The older Native Americans all speak Tlingit when they don't want the youngsters to understand what they're saying. When Ed talks to Joel about this, Joel mentions a similar thing happening in Queens where Alter Kockers speak in Yiddish in order to keep secrets. Both Tlingit and Yiddish are dying languages; Ed decides to dub [[The Prisoner of Zenda]] into Tlingit in order to preserve the language.

* Subverted on ''[[Scrubs]]''. Turk learns Spanish, and listens in on a conversation Carla is having with her mother. He later tells her that he had learned Spanish.

* On the first episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', a couple of Iranian businessmen speak Farsi to decide on a figure to pay Peter Bishop. Unbeknownst to them, he also speaks Farsi, and agrees to the figure they choose.

* In [[World War Two]], the Japanese used former students who had studied in the US to listen in to American radio transmissions, so Navajo soldiers were used to speak their own language, completely baffling the Japanese.

* Has been known to be [[Truth in Television]], when both parents speak a language their child does not.

* In both world wars, Welsh regiments of the British Army spoke Welsh in clear on radio transmissions, knowing the likelihood of a Welsh speaker turning up on the German/enemy side was vanishingly small. This idea was copied by the Americans, who used native Americans as signallers to similarly confound Japanese and German intercepts. Unfortunately for Welsh regiments in WW 2, Welsh was thought of by the Nazis as a dawn-language of the Aryan peoples, and a School of Celtic Studies had been set up at one German university. Once the Germans cottoned on, they had a certain number of Welsh speakers available to monitor radio transmissions... the practice was, however, maintained by Welsh units in the Far East. It is no longer used by the British army as so many countries have universities that teach Celtic languages. It did not go un-noticed that a fairly recent enemy, Argentina, actually has a Welsh-speaking minority population. And at least one university in Northern Ireland has a Celtic Studies department offering Welsh language as a module. For that reason, Welsh units serving in Ireland were strictly ordered to observe standard radio operating procedure and not to think of using the old trck, as it is just too well known.

* In a Movie Comics strip based on [[Windtalkers]], one of the two characters pretends to take the other prisoner and deliver him to the Japanese. The Japanese soldiers converse in Japanese and decide to kill them both, unbeknownst to them.

* In ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', Kell and Frank speak Feline while discussing {{spoiler|Frank's plan to overthrow R.L.}} to prevent their fleas from catching word of this. {{spoiler|R.L. already knows Feline, making this a subversion}}