Ritsu: We're in Japan! We don't need icky English!
Yui: No, we do not!
Ritsu: We will live only using Japanese here!
Yui: Yes, we will!
Yui: No, we do not!
Ritsu: We will live only using Japanese here!
Yui: Yes, we will!
— The English dub of K-On!
In works where a character is dealing with a foreign language and said work is later translated into said language, it's common for the work to change the foreign language into a different language. For example, an anime where the characters need to learn English may be changed in the English dub to the characters needing to learn Spanish. However, sometimes a work includes a scene where characters are dealing with a foreign language, only for the dub or translation to present that language as the same language the audience is already hearing. In other words, the characters are portrayed as struggling with a language that, from the viewer’s perspective, sounds exactly like the one they’ve been speaking the entire time. For example, an anime where the characters need to learn English is still kept as them learning English in the English dub.
This usually happens for a few reasons:
- The language itself isn't important to the plot. A reason why a foreign language is changed when the work is translated into said language is that there may be a plot point or joke where the character is struggling to learn/speak a foreign language, the translation will change the language the character is learning to keep the same idea across. If the class or foreign language scene is only incidental and doesn't rely on specific jokes or misunderstandings, the dub may simply keep the original language reference rather than change it.
- The audience is expected to have a Willing Suspension of Disbelief and accept it. This trope usually shows up in translations aimed at adults because they know the show takes place in another country and understand that the characters are speaking another language In-Universe instead of the dubbed language.
- It can create meta humor. Characters may complain about how difficult a language is, even though it sounds identical to their normal dialogue.
- In other words, switching up the language to Keep It Foreign may not be possible since there is visual imagery associated with the language being used (e.g. the Eiffel Tower for French), so the foreign language is left unchanged despite making the story clunky.
Subtrope of Cultural Translation, as it and Keep It Foreign are Opposite Tropes. Contrast Woolseyism, where the language or other details are altered during localization to better fit the translated version. Overlaps with Translation Convention when a dub translates what characters from another country are saying into the audience's language; the main difference here is that the translation still treats the audience's language as "foreign" to the characters In-Universe.
NOTE: For examples, please state what language the work was translated/dubbed in.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You:
- Naddy speaks broken English mixed with Japanese as part of her routine as a Foreign Culture Fetish. In the manga's scanlation and official English translation, she speaks in a strong Southern US accent and dialect, while acknowledging that the language she is speaking is Japanese In-Universe.
- Yaku is unable to understand English, which includes English loan words; this gets translated in English as her being a Scatterbrained Senior who is hard of hearing. Like the previous example, she acknowledges that her primary language is Japanese In-Universe.
- Assassination Classroom: Even in the English dub, the students are at a Japanese school where learning English is part of the curriculum, taught by Irina Jelavić for Class 3-E. This leads to a Running Gag where, due to struggling to differentiate between the "b"/"v" sounds (something that would not be an issue for native English speakers and does not come up in any other instance in this series), the students mispronounce Jelavić's name as "Jelabitch". Her first class is telling the students to practice biting their lower lip and pronouncing "v" for an hour.
- Asteroid in Love: While visiting the JAXA space center, Mikage asks on Mari's behalf what it would take to become an astronaut, one of the qualifications mentioned is proficiency in English, as communication is essential. This is kept in the English dub.
- Azumanga Daioh: Yukari—the main cast's homeroom teacher—is also their English teacher, and many gags rely on the use of English as a second language. In the English translations of the manga by ADV Films and Yen Press, Translation Convention is used to indicate when English is being spoken In-Universe. In ADV's English dub of the anime, Yukari is said to be a more general "language" teacher, and the in-universe English dialogue is (inconsistently) translated into other languages like Spanish or French.
- Cardfight!! Vanguard: Around the middle of Link Joker, Aichi's class goes on a field trip, during which they partake in an orienteering exercise. During this, Aichi questions why the instructions are written in English and Naoki notes he doesn't speak English. This is kept in the English dub.
- Cardfight!! Vanguard G would actually avert this in the epilogue of Z (and the entire series as a whole); in the original Japanese version, there's a scene where Tokoha attempts to teach Chrono English to no avail. The English dub changes this to Tokoha attempting to teach Chrono French to no avail.
- Case Closed: One tragic case involves a Poor Communication Kills when a Japanese woman kills herself after she misreads her American lover's letter. She reads the English word "shine" and thinks it's the Japanese word "shi ne", which means "die". This is kept in the English translation, with translation notes to explain what happened, implying that English is considered foreign In-Universe despite the characters speaking English.
- Death Note: The English translations of both the manga and anime keep Light's annoyance at having to "translate" the Note's English-written rules.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro's mother Holly is American and not a native Japanese speaker despite living with her son in Japan. However, in an early scene in the story two policemen compliment her on how good her Japanese sounds, which is translated unaltered in the English translation of both the manga and anime even though both parties are now speaking in English.
- K-On!: In the English dub of the movie, the gang is struggling learning to speak English, leading to a funny line where Ritsu says in English that they don't need English.
- Komi Can't Communicate: In the English dub of the anime, it is mentioned in an episode that Komi is doing very well in her English classes but still struggling to speak.
- Nichijou: Yuuko struggles with an English class in the series, with one episode focusing on her constant procrastination while studying. This all happens even in the English dub.
- Sailor Moon Crystal: In the English dub of the series, the first episode has Usagi refer to Ms. Haruna as her English teacher.
- Teasing Master Takagi-san: When preparing for exams, in the English dub Mina asks Yukari to help her prepare, because she's bad at English. Sanae snipes that Mina makes it sound like she's good at everything else, to which Mina whines that this is not the case, but that she's particularly bad at English.
- Vinland Saga: In the English dub, when Thorfinn is taken in by a kind English family, he only responds to them in broken English, and Bjorn speaks to the English villagers later in the manga the same way. Thorkell converses with Floki in London, which leads to an aside from some English soldiers who can't understand what he's saying because he's speaking Danish. This is awkward in the English dub where Danish and English were both spoken aloud in Japanese and are translated wholesale. Much later in the show, Askeladd leads his party into Welsh territory and reveals himself to be an Omniglot and is the only one who can negotiate with the Welsh. This leads to a three-way language discussion where the Danish speaking characters who only know a little English can't understand the language Askeladd and the Welshman are speaking — even though every spoken language is translated as English.
- What's Michael? (1984): In one of the stories, a Japanese family man brings home the cat of his American colleague to pet-sit. However, since the cat was raised by an American, he only understands English. In the English edition, the couple then tries to call for Michael in horribly accented English "<Kamu heeru!!>". At first Michael doesn't react, but after a few tries he reacts to the call of "<Kam heer!>". Their attempt to explain to him what his litterbox is is less successful though.
- YuYu Hakusho has an interesting case. One scene has Keiko studying by writing words in both English and Japanese. The way her dialog in the English dub is ambiguous enough that it can be interpreted as her learning the English equivalent of Japanese words, or the Japanese equivalent of English words.
Film — Live-Action
- Both Sahara (1943) and its 1995 remake got dubbed into German. One of the plot points is that the Allied soldiers capture a German pilot early on, and he pretends to not understand English, only to eavesdrop on them and their plans, endangering their massive ruse against incoming Afrika Korps. Meanwhile, the only Allied soldier speaking and understanding German is Captain Halliday, creating a genuine language barrier. As you might have guessed, this just doesn't work if everyone speaks German, while the dubbing team put zero effort to work around the issue.
Literature
- Back Flow: This trope and Keep It Foreign are parodied in the second chapter this web novel
when Izumi, a character from an In-Universe manga, insists she is speaking Japanese when she is speaking English, and shows what she learned from her English class by speaking Chinese.
"What? Don't be silly. Izumi doesn't know English," her voice replied. "I tried, but all I remember from what Countess taught me is '这是一支笔'."
"...That was Chinese," he said, leaning back in his office chair. - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules: The book has a subplot where Greg has a French pen pal he regularly communicates with for French class. This is left unchanged in French translations of the book, presumably due to a scene where Greg imagines himself as a foreign exchange student in Paris.
- War and Peace: Zig-Zagged for French editions. The book has numerous instances where the characters speak French as a foreign language as a plot point, since it was common for Russian aristocrats to know French. While some French translations change "French" to another language, other translations translate the entire thing in French while keeping footnotes to explain the author's original intent.
Live-Action TV
- Marry My Husband: Japan: Downplayed. In Episode 5, Misa's company hosts an international food tasting event. In the original Japanese version, Misa speaks in accented English to one of the Caucasian guests, while in the English dub, she speaks the exact same way she always does. However, the tasting booth signs are notably all in English, in contrast to the Japanese signs seen throughout the series.
Video Games
- Flower Knight Girl: In Part 1, Mission 16, the group encounters a Flower Knight, Flowering Dogwood, who speaks with the occasional Gratuitous English phrases, with the Japanese-speaking knights (particularly Great Burnet) naturally reacting with confusion. In the short-lived English port on Nutaku, Flowering Dogwood speaking English is still part of her character despite her Japanese speech being translated into English, with Di Yu still expressing her confusion over what she's saying.
Di Yu: "Kamu hi-ah"?
Canola: Don't they mean "follow me?" - Persona 5:
- When the Phantom Thieves go on a school trip to Hawaii, they meet a local upon arrival who welcomes them with Ryuji expressing shock that he speaks Japanese. While this makes sense when playing in Japanese, Ryuji still says the man is speaking in Japanese when he clearly isn't in the English dub. This was not fixed in the Royal re-release.
- During Futaba's story arc, there were multiple times where the international hacker group Medjed send threatening messages to the Phantom Thieves on their public website. The messages are in English however, so Ryuji complaints on how he's unable to understand them and asks for the quarter-American Ann to translate it for him. Obviously, this doesn't make sense in the dub where all of them speak English.
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby: A few scenes in the global release have the characters complaining about having to learn English despite the fact that their dialogue is now rendered in English.
Winning Ticket: English... make no... SENSE!
- In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, one of the early sidequests, "Fast Times at Ounabara", involves Ichiban encountering an American tourist asking him for directions in English, to which he laments that he doesn't understand him because he speaks Japanese, and someone else nearby takes over. In the English dub, the tourist still speaks English, but loudly and awkwardly to convey this, which Ichiban is confused by. He eventually figures out that the tourist is speaking English (which, because of the dub, Ichiban is also currently speaking English too), and then does an Aside Glance and a small thumbs-up gesture, as if to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation.
Visual Novels
- Danganronpa:
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: The first murder involves a clue that is written using Roman characters. Sayaka writes the name of her killer, LEON, in blood behind her back. However, due to her not connecting the middle of the N and it being written upside down, most of the characters initially mistake it for the numbers 11037. The mystery is more well hidden to a Japanese audience who probably isn't that familiar with the Latin alphabet. The problem is that the clue isn't able to be translated in a way that retains the same meaning, so the official translation leaves it as is, making the clue incredibly obvious to anyone familiar with any language using a Latin alphabet. However, most of the characters will take some time to realize what the clue actually means, something that is jarring in the English dub.note
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Zigzagged in this game.
- This is usually inverted. Generally, the characters will behave as if they've always been speaking in English in the dub and discuss some Japanese words as if the characters aren't Japanese. Hajime and Nagito discuss the hotel they're staying at, Hotel Mirai, and Nagito explains that "mirai" is the Japanese word for future as if they don't speak it regularly. The group also mention the symbol for the Future Foundation having the Japanese symbol for "future" as if they shouldn't be familiar with it. Additionally, during a case where a suspect should know a phrase in Spanish, the others say that they shouldn't be saying it in English rather than saying they shouldn't be saying it in Japanese.
- Played straight when Hajime finds a brochure written in English. He is unable to understand it even in the dub. Sonia, who can speak English (among other languages), explains this for him.
- Doki Doki Literature Club!: This trope is parodied when Natsuki makes a Japanese pun involving squid ("ika") and Monika's name, with Monika Breaking the Fourth Wall and criticizing her for making a joke that won't translate well in other languages. Despite the game originally being released in English, the game is meant to parody anime tropes with the characters speaking Japanese In-Universe.
- The Great Ace Attorney: Main protagonist Ryuunosuke Naruhodo is a Japanese student of the English language in every version of the game, with the first case being set while he's early enough in his studies that he can't understand a British witness, needing an interpreter to translate for him. Her "English" speech is represented by an unreadably scrawled cursive font. Later, Natsume Sōseki appears as a character and goes on a rant about what a waste of time it is asking him to study English. In the game's English release, you can tell what language the characters are "supposed" to be speaking based on whether they use Japanese Honorifics or English ones.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus:
- In the episode "Untitled", this trope is parodied where, in an anime parody, Kinger is teaching an English class despite everyone still speaking English, where his confused reaction lampshades how confusing it is. This gag is kept in foreign language dubs like French and Spanish, with "English" being replaced with the aforementioned languages.
- The trope is played straight in "Beach Episode", where the beginning of the episode has Caine parody the "Chinese room" experiment and comment how he doesn't know Chinese. This is unchanged in the Chinese dub of the episode.
Western Animation
- The Fairly OddParents!: In the episode "Timvisible", there's a gag where Cosmo and Wanda are attending a Spanish class. Some Latin-American countries cut out the gag, while other Latin-American countries keep it as a Spanish class in the Spanish dub, presumably due to Cosmo and Wanda wearing sombreros.
- In Hazbin Hotel, the English version of the song "Clean it Up" has Nifty switch to Japanese in the latter half of the song. The Japanese dub does not change these lyrics, ruining the joke that all of the genuine compliments Nifty has for the hotel are in a language the majority of the Sinners on the Pride Ring can't speak.
- In The Long Long Holiday, which is set in France, the English dub still treats English as a foreign language. When the main characters meet a downed English pilot, they speak to him in a more stereotypical British accent, and when the town is liberated by Canadian soldiers, they act like the English they're speaking is a foreign language.
- The Simpsons: In the episode "Cape Feare", there is a moment where Sideshow Bob tries to pass off his tattoo saying "Die Bart, Die" as actually being German for "The Bart, The". In the German dub of the episode, this is left unchanged due to being a Visual Gag.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In the episode "Pizza Delivery", there is a brief gag where the words "Forward" and "Backward" in the boat are translated into Korean to highlight SpongeBob's inability to understand what to do. While the text was just duplicated a bunch (to make it harder to read) in the EBS Korean dub◊, Nick's Korean dub of the episode left the scene unchanged.
