Suddenly Bilingual: Difference between revisions

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* In one episode of ''[[Lost]]'', it turns out that Juliet can speak Latin. Apparently, all Others are taught Latin. This is never mentioned again.

* A later-justified example ~~occured~~ in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', when Antimony turns out to speak conversational Polish and, later, at least a bit of Spanish. Several storylines later, it's revealed - in an offhand comment - that she basically grew up with a bunch of [[Psychopomp]]s, who taught her each of their languages (~~judicous~~ use of time-stopping was apparently used). This presumably means that she also speaks Egyptian, Greek, and Hindi, along with god (of death) knows how many other languages.

* A later-justified example occurred in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', when Antimony turns out to speak conversational Polish and, later, at least a bit of Spanish. Several storylines later, it's revealed - in an offhand comment - that she basically grew up with a bunch of [[Psychopomp]]s, who taught her each of their languages (judicious use of time-stopping was apparently used). This presumably means that she also speaks Egyptian, Greek, and Hindi, along with god (of death) knows how many other languages.

* Kenneth from ''[[30 ~~Rock|Thirty~~ Rock]]'' is revealed to be fluent in Latin for a quick gag.

* Kenneth from ''[[30 Rock]]'' is revealed to be fluent in Latin for a quick gag.

** However, a [[Running Gag]] is to imply that he is possibly immortal, or at least very very old. He could have easily been a medieval monk or something.

* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' Tucker is suddenly revealed to be able to speak some Esperanto, though it does come up several times later on.

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* Bart Simpson [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]] this one in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', where he goes to France in an exchange program and starts suddenly speaking French ''in the middle of a sentence''.

* From ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Bill speaks French because he grew up in an upper class Cajun family in Louisiana. Peggy lampshades this and Bill seemed genuinely surprised that he spoke French too, or that the language he was speaking was French it's not quite clear.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in [[Toy Story]] 3 with {{spoiler|Buzz's Spanish Mode.}}

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Toy Story 3]]'' with {{spoiler|Buzz's Spanish Mode.}}

* Bubbles in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' can speak Spanish, though she doesn't have the chance much. Why can she? Because each of the girls has one unique superpower. That's hers.

** Bubbles' language skills were expanded from this one-episode gag to speaking [[Omniglot|any language]] - up to and including [[Speaks Fluent Animal|squirrel.]]

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Hispanic Guy: No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.

Brian: You .... you're kidding me, right?

Hispanic Guy: Que? }}

Hispanic Guy: Que?}}

* In ''[[Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo]]'', Starfire becomes able to speak Japanese by kissing a local.

* Jenny from ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' has several language discs that enable her to speak in foreign tongues. In one episode she loses her English disc while ~~fighing~~ a [[Kaiju]] in Japan and is stuck speaking Japanese for the rest of the episode.

* Jenny from ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' has several language discs that enable her to speak in foreign tongues. In one episode she loses her English disc while fighting a [[Kaiju]] in Japan and is stuck speaking Japanese for the rest of the episode.

* In ''[[The A-Team (film)|The a Team]]'', a mix-up with forged passports results in ~~Murdoc~~ needing to pass himself off as an African. His teammates, realizing the mix-up, figure their cover's blown and start scoping out emergency ~~exits—then~~ Murdock starts chatting with the Customs officer in Swahili. Later:

* In ''[[The A-Team (film)|The a Team]]'', a mix-up with forged passports results in Murdock needing to pass himself off as an African. His teammates, realizing the mix-up, figure their cover's blown and start scoping out emergency exits — then Murdock starts chatting with the Customs officer in Swahili. Later:

{{quote|'''Face:''' You speak Swahili?

'''Murdock:''' You don't? }}

'''Murdock:''' You don't?}}

** This might be a [[Mythology Gag]] referring to a literal example in [[The A-Team|the original series]]. In one episode the A-Team went up against a [[The Triads and the Tongs|triad]] running a protection racket. At one point said triad left a message on a wall in Mandarin, which Murdock translated easily. Everyone stared at him, then he mentioned how one night he went to bed with a splitting headache and woke up able to speak Mandarin.

* In [[Generator Rex]], the main character suffers from amnesia but is obviously [[Ambiguously Brown|non-Caucasian]], so his occasional use of [[Gratuitous Spanish]] is expected. Then he finds in one episode that he can also speak Chinese. Possibly justified in that {{spoiler|he was raised by world-traveling scientists.}}

* In ''[[Generator Rex]]'', the main character suffers from amnesia but is obviously [[Ambiguously Brown|non-Caucasian]], so his occasional use of [[Gratuitous Spanish]] is expected. Then he finds in one episode that he can also speak Chinese. Possibly justified in that {{spoiler|he was raised by world-traveling scientists.}}

* [[Castle]] speaks Chinese in one episode. His only explanation is that he learned the language "from [[Firefly|this TV show]] I used to love". It's never mentioned again.

* In [[The Vicar of Dibley]], Alice and Hugo are suddenly able to speak Hebrew in order to be cast as Mary and Joseph. It is hilarious.

* In ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'', Alice and Hugo are suddenly able to speak Hebrew in order to be cast as Mary and Joseph. It is hilarious.

* On ''[[Dollhouse]]'' Actives can speak multiple languages when they're imprinted with new minds. The [[Distant Finale]] also features people who have been modified to be able to insert and remove information packets from their heads, which includes {{spoiler|Victor/Anthony}} arriving speaking one language and replacing it with an English version.

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'' Harry can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes. He can't tell when he's doing it, so he didn't even realize this was a special power until the second book when his friends had to explain that he'd suddenly started sputtering hisses in front of everyone.

* In a [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]] episode Ryan and Drew are playing 90 second alphabet. When it comes to the letter Q, Ryan goes "Que?". It's made extra funny since the first line established his character's name as Garcon

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', Paine reveals out of nowhere that she can speak the Al Bhed language, something the Al Bhed she'd been ~~travelling~~ with didn't realize.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', Paine reveals out of nowhere that she can speak the Al Bhed language, something the Al Bhed she'd been traveling with didn't realize.

* Happens twice on ''[[Friends]]'', with Phoebe. One episode had her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother (Phoebe seems as surprised about this as Joey), and in another she reveals she is fluent in French.

* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'': Dory claims to speak whale language. Marlin is less than impressed, until it actually gets them to Sydney. Dory also seems to know how to read English.

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