As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Difference between revisions

** Subverted when [[Stephen Colbert]] was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-K47xCUc7E actually speaking German.]

** Even more hilarious if they take a well-known word or phrase in that language and completely mistranslate it on purpose.

** Except for [[Anna Faris]]'s line "''ninhonjin''", which is very close to the actual Japanese word for a Japanese person, ''nihonjin''.

** The fact that it's complete gibberish [[Occidental Otaku|is kind of]] [[Acceptable Targets|the point]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' flirts with this. Major, canon NPCs will get well-based names, but the guidelines for players and Game Masters to name their own characters vary, and so do the accuracy of the names used by players.

** There was also Kurohito, a guy born with stark white hair and fair blue eyes, whose name means "Black Man".

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'' features a case with a defendant and witness who speak Borginese, a "language" which consists of [[wikipedia:Dingbat|dingbats]].

** Netopian in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' is also written in dingbats, as is Melnics in [[Tales of Eternia]].

* The creators of ''[[Ico]]'', to facilitate the important gameplay/plot point of the two main characters being unable to verbally communicate or (in Yorda's case) be understood by the player, came up with not one, but two fictional languages for their protagonists. Yorda speaks something vaguely reminiscent of French, and Ico's language sounds a bit like Korean. {{spoiler|The Queen speaks both tongues fluently, a talent she [[Evil Gloating|puts to good use]] in her little chats with Ico.}}

* ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' is a notable exception. The demo has characters Gasket (a moron), and Ivan (a Russian with little patience). When Gasket displays his stupidity, Ivan finally says "I've never worked with such an idiot before" in perfect Russian, AND the game correctly displays what he said in text as well. Considering that excluding Ivan is the only exception to a game fully in English, it's impressive they took the effort to get it right.

* In the 1996 adventure game ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]: Prisoner of Ice'' a Norwegian character is introduced early in the game, but his lines are just barely comprehensible to Norwegian, Danish or Swedish speakers. In one scene he screams "I have never loved anybody" in horribly mispronounced Swedish (even though he is supposed to be Norwegian).

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance]]'' and ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' have the Ancient Language, which the Herons use to sing their galdr. The language is just Japanese being reversed.

* Maybe this is a common theme in [[Tom Clancy]] games, but in the air combat game ''HAWX'', the game opens with the squad facing a set of Bolivarian insurgents named "Las Trinidad" attacking Brazil. The problem with that is that Las Trinidad does not mean "the trinity" (that's la trinidad), but Trinidad. As in Trinidad and Tobago.

* The ''[[Panzer Dragoon]]'' series has the so-called "Panzerese," which is basically a combination of Japanese, German, English, and either Latin or Italian. Example: One song of the Panzer Dragoon Saga Soundtrack is called "Ecce Valde Glorious Ale." Make of that what you will. (does not qualify for [[Fictionary]] because it uses actual words from other languages)

** [[Robin Williams]] has a couple examples...

{{quote|"I got drunk and got a tattoo here ''(points to the side of his abdomen)'' in Mandarin that says 'Happiness and Laughter'. I think that's what it says, since I've never had a Chinese person that close enough to my balls to say, 'That's what it says.' But a friend of mine got a tattoo in Mandarin that said 'Golden Warrior' but later someone stold him, 'No, it says "Ass Monkey".' And then the same guy got a tattoo in Hindi that said 'Dawn of Enlightenment' but then someone told him, 'No, it says "Deliveries on Tuesday".' So he is now the ass monkey that delivers on Tuesday for the rest of his life.}}

* Expect people who speak a ''little'' Chinese to fake their way through the tones and, as a result, say gibberish.

* New Age "Native American spirituality" types often greet with "osiyo" and end with "mitakuye oyasin". The former is Cherokee. The latter is Lakota, thousands of miles away, and translates as "all my relatives" - which, without a verb, means nothing.