C3PX said:I guess for monolingual people, the idea of two different individuals carrying on a conversation, each in their own native tongue, doesn't seem so odd. But for those of us who know two or more languages, the idea is so awkward, words fail to explain it. Imagine seeing an American and a Mexican having a long indepth conversation with one another, the American speaking in plain and fluent English, and the Mexican speaking in plain and fluent Spanish, but yet they seem to be communicating with each other just fine. ???? As far as I know, this only ever happens in the first Star Wars movie and even more so in fanedits of the other ones.
I have always felt that the scene with Han and Greedo talking was a bit ridiculous, and later the same stupid, bizzare, retarded idea was used again in the Han Jabba conversation. Utterly ridiculous. If Han knows Huttese, why the hell would he just not speak in Huttese, or if Greedo know Engish, why not speak it. Speaking multiple languages myself, it is really hard to speak in one language, then suddenly switch to the other. I cannot even imagine having such a conversation as Han has with Greedo.
This issue was thankfully fixed in Return of the Jedi, where we have Leia speaking to Jabba in Huttese, or with Threepio translating. Fanedits brought the dumb idea back by having Jar Jar speaking in his language, while everyone else spoke to him in English. Makes even less sense, how would so many people know Jar Jar's dumb obscure language? When two aliens are having a conversation in a single language, this subtitle idea works just fine. The idea of having Ackbar explain things in subtitles while everyone else listens and understand him just fine, to me, is creating an even bigger problem than we already had.
There are a lot of people who understand a foreign language better than they can speak said foreign language. For example, my brother's ex-girlfriend (Diana) was born in the Philipines, but was adopted by a couple in the U.S. when she was young. Her biological father was an American serviceman. Diana can understand Tagalog but doesn't speak it very well. Her real mother can understand English (due to being with the Diana's American father), but doesn't speak it very well. So when Diana and her mother talk, Diana speaks English, and her mother speaks Tagalog, and they both understand each other (though occasionally they have to clarify something in the other's preferred speaking language).
It is easier to get to the point of understanding a language (if you are around it enough) than it is to speak it well enough that someone else can easily understand you. When I call or visit the Chinese restaurant in town, they always understand what I'm saying, but it is very difficult to understand what they are saying in their terribly broken English. I'm sure they would rather reply to me in Chinese if they thought I could understand it.