This may be a long shot, but I was asked by a college-student friend for examples of conversations in sci-fi movies or TV of two bilingual characters who choose to speak in one language or another due to the situation. E.g., did Picard ever speak to Worf in Klingon because they had the choice and others in the room couldn't?

I know Firefly characters speak both English and Chinese, and some characters in stuff like Avatar and Defiance are bilingual. But I don't recall if they ever chose to speak in one or the other.

It isn't sci-fi, but I'm thinking a good example is Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds,

There's probably some good examples in the first season of Star Trek Enterprise where Vulcans are speaking in Vulcan so humans don't understand what they're saying.

Check out the TV Show Alien Nation as well...there were a lot of instances where characters would speak in Tenctonese (or however you spelled it) so humans wouldn't know what they were saying.

I can't recall clearly but Enemy Mine might have had a situation like that. I remember that each learned the other's language.

How about Virgil the monkey and Matthew Broderick talking to each other in sign language in Project X? Watch those monkeys fly!

Thanks for all these suggestions!

It's not science fiction, but the officers and gentlemen of Le Grande Illusion are all multi-lingual and they are polite enough to speak the native language of whichever gentleman he's speaking to. So the German officer mostly speaks French and English, depending on who he's speaking to. Naturally, they speak German in return.

My all time favorite bilingual conversation is between Ghost Dog and the ice cream vendor. Neither one speaks the other's language, but they understand each other just fine.

Enemy Mine

Spock and Saavik in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan spoke Vulcan to each other.

There's at least one scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in which Spock and Saavik speak to each other in Vulcan.


(EDIT: D'oh! Missed windom's posting this same thing while I was double-checking how to spell Saavik before clicking to post)

Daddy Day Care.

I don't understand how you can speak two languages when universal translators are in effect.

Also, how do we know that Jean-Luc Picard isn't speaking French the whole time?

Hard-pressed to think of sci-fi examples. Is he writing a screenplay and wants to gauge if this is an original concept?

I feel like 2001 and/or 2010 have some sort of English-Russian interplay but I can't recall.

Not sci-fi, but Ronin sees several characters choose to speak in French as opposed to English, and at least once it's to test whether a particular character also speaks French and even when that character does, he doesn't pick up on the sense that he's being tested.

Also not sci-fi: Indiana Jones speaks Mandarin to Short Round on the bridge in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to hide his plan.

If I recall correctly, there's also Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Spock and Saavik choose to speak to each other in Vulcan.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Star Trek 2 yet.

When Princess Leia disguises herself in ROTJ she speaks a language that is neither English or Jabba the Hutt's language. I know that's not exactly what the OP is asking for, but I will add that I know what he's talking about and there must be an example. I'll keep thinking.

How about Ani talking with his owner in The Phantom Menace?

More Star Trek: I think in the TNG Season 2 episode, "A Matter of Honor," when Riker goes over as an exchange officer, the Klingons speak Klingon because they think Riker won't understand them, and he replies in Klingon to show them that he does.

Also, recently on Game of Thrones (okay, fantasy - not really sci-fi), Calisi works with an interpreter to try and make a deal for a city's troops, but we find out later that she understood his language all along.

I was struggling to think of a Star Wars example, because most often in Star Wars, you have two characters carrying on a conversation in two different languages, but I think this one actually works.

Han and Chewie comes to mind. Chewie was such a dick that he didn't even want to talk the white man's language. That motherfucker.

The dinner scene in This Island Earth had some of the aliens talking in their own languages fuck it.

Klaatu barada nicto.

A lady talks alien to them to understand.

I want to say they did this once or twice in the Men in Black movies but I can't seem to think of an actual example...so I'm really no help at all.