In District 9 the main character is able to talk with the aliens in an unusual manner. He speaks english to them which they understand while they speak alien to him which he understands. It immediately reminded me of Star Wars the way Han and Chewbacca were able to talk back and forth. Also how R2-D2 and C3PO conversed. Neither spoke the others language yet they both understood eachother perfectly.
Was StarWars the first to use this? Are there any other examples of this? Does it have a name and is it only used in the movies?
I can’t answer, but it makes sence from a ‘I cannot make the same sounds as you’, kinda way.
My subconscious just threw Flipper at the windscreen of my mind.
“What’s that Flipper? Bucky fell down the well and broke his arm? I’ll go get Lassie!”
Huh. I thought Han DID understand Wookiese, even if he didn’t speak it. C3PO spoke a jillion languages, why not R2ese too? And R2D2 was a smart little feller, why couldn’t he have understood English even if he could only beep in return?
Everyone in Star Wars talks like that. Luke & the Jawas. Han & Greedo. Leia & Ackbar.
Well, there is a scene in “Hunt For Red October” when all of a sudden Sean Connery and Scott Glenn’s characters can understand each other even though up until that point Alec Baldwin has been translating between the two of them.
It’s the babelfish.
Yes, the OP is talking about the very fact you’re talking about–that SW people understand languages they do not speak.
You’re not suggesting this is actually being portrayed as happening in the story, are you?
I can’t remember which novel had this scene (could it have been one of Timothy Zahn’s?), but Leia meets another Wookie and realizes she can understand him perfectly… Chewbacca just had a speech impediment.
BMax, Ackbar spoke in… oh, what does Star Wars call its not-English? Basic? Common? Anyway, English. Do you mean Leia and Jabba?
Don’t click on this link if you don’t have hours to waste or much better willpower than most: TvTropes calls this Bilingual Dialogue and has many an example.
SW canon says that, while it’s possible for a non-Wookiee to understand Shyriiwook (Wookiee-speak), virtually no one who’s not actually a Wookiee can speak it.
Artoo speaks in “binary”, which many droids speak. Most droids that interact with humans can understand Basic (the name that’s given in some canon sources to the “common language”), but apparently giving them an apparatus to speak in Basic makes for a more-expensive droid.
And, one of the roles of a protocol droid like Threepio is to act as a translator between droids and humans (recall that he first introduces himself to Luke as “See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations”). There’s no reason why Threepio couldn’t have replied to Artoo in beeps and whistles, but it would have made for a fairly unsatisfying conversation for the viewer. 
It was a Zahn book, but you kind of got it backwards.
Chewbacca was perfectly normal - but the one you’re talking about (and I’m damn sure not trying to spell a wookiee name from memory even if I remembered it) had a speech impediment that he could speak Basic correctly but would sound funny speaking Wookiee to other Wookiees. Think of it as having a lisp that conveniently makes him able to speak Basic.
-Joe
Pretty much every movie set during World War 2 had characters who spoke only English/French/German/Japanese somehow able to communicate (at least on an elementary level) with a person on the other side.
Because Connery’s character knew English and was hiding it to begin with, just as Baldwin’s character knew Russian and was initially hiding it. It’s not really the same situation.
Ah! Thanks for the correction.
Wait. Wait. No. Wait. No.
I thought it was just that the movie was telling us “Okay, we know you get it, they’re talking through interpreters, let’s just skip the actual representation of the interpreting part, and get down to what they’re actually saying to each other.”
Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong movie.
While shopping I love to hear a mom speaking Spanish and her kids whining back at her in English.
You’re thinking of the right movie but the wrong scene.
Early in the movie, Connery and the other Russian officers speak Russian. Then, in the scene in Captain Ramius’s (Connery’s) quarters with the political officer, as the officer is reading one of Ramius’s books, the camera zooms in, and as it comes back out, the officer is speaking English. It’s a clever way for the filmmaker to tell us “Okay, from now on we’re dispensing with subtitles.”
However, when Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn et al. finally board the Red October, the Russians speak Russian to each other - since of course it’s necessary to show the two sides speak different languages. Ryan and Ramius then speak Russian with each other; when Ramius expresses surprise that Ryan speaks Russian, Ryan uses the line about needing to understand one’s adversary. Ramius then addresses Scott Glenn’s character (Commander Mancuso, IIRC) in English, formally surrendering his vessel and asking for asylum - and, of course, demonstrating that he’s at least tied for being the smartest man in the room.
As to the OP, I’ve often done this in both spoken and written English and French with Quebecois who, like me, can understand the other language but aren’t comfortable with how well they speak and write it.
As far as District 9 is concerned, I assumed it was just that since the humans and aliens’ physilogy is so different, it’s impossible for them to speak each other’s languages. The aliens communicate via a bunch of clicks and squeals whereas we communicate by forcing air through a lot of flapping meat. So, over the years, the aliens learned how to understand english and a few of the humans learned how to understand the clicks.
I think I remember some of the aliens not understanding english, and that during the sale of the mech suit, people were translating for other people. Christopher may have better than average understanding of english, because he seems to have better than average intelligence throughout the film.
It’s like how we can sort of understand what dolphins are saying (allegedly), but we could never actually speak dolphin because we don’t have their gear.
Well, we can make the sounds but not the language. We’d be speaking in gibberish.