History Main / KeepItForeign

* The TabletopGame/YuGiOh card "Hitotsu-me Giant"'s Japanese name was "Cyclops" in GratuitousEnglish.
** "Raigeki" was originally called "Thunderbolt".
** "Hinotama" was "Fireball" in Japanese, and "Sakuretsu Armor" was "Reactive Armor".

* The first few editions of the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' Card Game had cards that had English names in the Japanese version - these became Japanese in the English version. Not all of them, though; the early translation was decidedly messy.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'':

** In ''Film/ALittlePrincess'', the French teacher becomes an Italian one, and Sara Crewe thus speaks in Italian in front of him and Ms Minchin.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' episode "Camping" centers on Bluey befriending Jean-Luc, a French-speaking Black Lab, despite their language barrier. In the French dub of the show, Jean-Luc is instead an English-speaker named Johnny.[[/folder]]

** In ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'', Hot Rod speaks with an italian accent. Note that Viviane's curiosity about his pronunciation of the sound "R" is plausible in both versions, since French and Italian do have indeed a different way to pronunce "R" that English and each other.

* In the french dub of ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'', the Donkey family is from England.

* In the original Korean script of ''VideoGame/CookieRunKingdom'', the Bear Jelly Merchant featured throughout bonus cutscenes uses GratuitousEnglish in their dialogue. The languages are reversed in the English translation.

* In ''Anime/InazumaEleven'', a South Korean soccer team appears in the third arc. In the South Korena dub, the it was changed into a North Korean team.

* ''Manga/{{Wagnaria}}'' was renamed ''Wagnaria!!'' for the English-speaking market. Despite appearances, "wagnaria" is ''not'' the Japanese word for "working," it's the name of the restaurant they work at.

* The same thing happened in the Mexican Spanish dub of ''The Old Gringo'': The American characters speak using polite neutral Mexican Spanish, but the Mexican characters speak with an [[NWordPrivileges exaggerated, stereotypical Mexican accent]].

* In ''Film/AFishCalledWanda'', Kevin Kline's character talks in Italian to his mistress to get her aroused. In the Italian dubbed version, he uses Spanish.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'', Jean-Bob becomes an Italian frog named Aldo. In the DirectToVideo sequels, he's actually voiced by an Italo-Belgian actor.

* When ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' was first translated into Polish, as ''Mechaniczna pomarańcza'', the translator kept all the Russian-influenced slang. But several years later he produced another version, ''Nakręcana pomarańcza'', with all Russian-influenced slang changed into English-influenced one. He also planned a German-based version, which did not appear due to DiedDuringProduction.

%%* The same goes for ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''.

** In the Spanish dub, Spanish becomes Italian.

* In the Swedish version of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', the Swedish Chef is called "The Norwegian Chef".

* The Russian version of ''[[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Heroes of Might and Magic V]]'' changed Russian-like names of the kings of the Griffin dynasty to vaguely Latin-like. (Nival is actually a Russian company, but since it was contracted by the French publisher Ubisoft, the owner of the rights to the ''Might and Magic'' franchise, the international English version was made first.)

* Some Spanish-language versions of ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' replaced Spanish with English. In fact, the use of this trope varies in different countries, and from one translation to the next. Some versions are in a single language and others throw in foreign phrases, but for the most part the show's bilingual roots remain: some versions use the local language plus English, some add Spanish instead, and in rare cases three different languages can be heard.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', Adrien is needed to translate for Marinette's Mandarin Chinese speaking uncle, Wang Cheng. In the Mandarin dub, he instead speaks Cantonese, which preserves Marinette's Chinese heritage, but still makes sense as Cantonese and Mandarin are not mutually intelligible.

* Averted in ''Film/TopSecret'', as the Saxon accent is distinctively different from the mainstream German.

** Bizarrely averted by the Korean dub, where Jin & Sun are kept Korean and have difficulties communicating with everyone else, who ''also'' speak Korean.
* The same goes for ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''.

** Notably averted in the German translation which keeps the von Karma family German.

** Averted by the Quebec dub of "The Crepes of Wrath" as Parisien French is different enough from Quebec French (and possibly the rural French of the characters in the European French dub).

* Not used in some Spanish-language versions of ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer''. Instead of speaking in English and repeating in Spanish, everyone says everything in Spanish twice. This kinda defeats the purpose of the show.
** Other translations replaced Spanish with English. In fact, the use of this trope varies in different countries, and from one translation to the next. Some versions are in a single language and others throw in foreign phrases, but for the most part the show's bilingual roots remain: some versions use the local language plus English, some add Spanish instead, and in rare cases three different languages can be heard. The other wiki has a helpful list.

* Strangely averted in the French dub of ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'', in which FrenchJerk Nanette Manoir is still French. Which means that, while in the original she used GratuitousFrench, in the dub she just repeats herself a lot. And having a girl say the French equivalent of "Good morning! Which, in English, means good morning!" does not make her sound pretentious, it makes her sound insane. (Question: What did they do in the episode featuring that exchange student from France?)
* Inexplicably averted in the French dub of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', in which Dexter repeating "omelette du fromage" (a slightly poor translation; it should be "omelette '''au''' fromage") is replaced with Dexter repeating "omelette of cheese" around people who speak grammatically correct French, who find it amazing and romantic for no reason.

* Averted in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} in Britain''. Normally, in the English dubs of Asterix movies, the Gauls and the Romans speak the same accent. In this one, however, all the Britons have British accents and the Gauls all have French accents. However, the Romans still have American accents rather than Italian.

* In an FanSub of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', when Keima needs to "capture" [[spoiler: Ayumi(sports girl)]] for the second time, he reaches a point where she asks him to confess to her(long story). Being Keima, and not really loving her he kept saying "I love you". In the original, the first was in Japanese, the second was in English. In the translation, however, the first was in English the second was in French, to preserve the meaning.

->''"Admiral Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida) -- a Frenchman who is so devious he substitutes French NATO troops for Americans in a phony rescue mission, and calls them off just when Burnett is desperately waving from a pickup area. Bet you a shiny new dime that when this movie plays in France, Admiral Piquet becomes an Italian."[[note]]He doesn't.[[/note]]''

* ''Manga/{{Working}}'' was renamed ''Wagnaria!!'' for the English-speaking market. Despite appearances, "wagnaria" is ''not'' the Japanese word for "working," it's the name of the restaurant they work at.

When this is ''not'' done and there is a footnote or any author/translator's comentary of sorts, it will often say something along the lines of "In English in the original".

Other times, it can have a pragmatic reason, since sometimes having the person be foreign is necessary to the plot. (For example, in the play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', a minor plot revolves around an innocent woman being sentenced to death primarily because she spoke no English and no-one could understand her Hungarian. Obviously, this wouldn't work when the show was performed in Hungary, so the Hungarian was changed to Chinese.) If the cultural/ethnic particulars of a character or other story aspect are ''too'' detailed and specific, any attempts to KeepItForeign can lead to a ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange.

* In the French dub of Trigun, Vash's GratuitousFrench is changed to gratuitous Italian instead.

[[/folder]]

* When ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' was first translated into Polish, as ''Mechaniczna pomarańcza'', the translator kept all the Russian-influenced slang. But several years later he produced another version, ''Nakręcana pomarańcza'', with all Russian-influenced slang changed into English-influenced one. He also planned a German-based version, which did not appear due to AuthorExistenceFailure.

* In the 17th century, French courtiers came with the custom to leave without saying a word as to not disturb or distract the King from governing matters. When the Bourbons inherited the throne of Spain, they introduced the same custom, which gave origin to the Spanish idiom "Saying goodbye the French way" as slang to leaving unnanounced. Eventually the idiom made its way back into France, but by them the custom had disappeared, so they changed it to "Saying goodbye the Spanish (or English) way".

* The Roller-coaster amusement ride is only known in Russia by the name roughly translated as "American mountains/hills/slides". Contrariwise, in some European countries (like France, Italy and Spain) they are known as "Russian mountains".

* JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples: Most of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' is written in Early Modern English, but of course, Caesar and his contemporaries would ''actually'' have been speaking Latin most of the time. Shakespeare rendered Caesar's FamousLastWords as "Et tu, Brute?—Then fall, Cæsar;" the first three words of this are Latin meaning "And you, Brutus?", indicating Caesar's sense of betrayal upon recognising Brutus among the conspirators. The historical Caesar's dying words are disputed; some contemporary accounts report that he said nothing, while others mention a rumour that his dying words included a phrase in Greek directed at Brutus, "Καὶ σύ, τέκνον?", meaning "And you, child?" The Romans used Greek as a marker of their education, much as Latin has evidently been used in the Anglosphere since at least Shakespeare's day; thus, by rendering some of Caesar's dying words in Latin, Shakespeare is achieving the same effect for his contemporary audiences. It should be noted that Shakespeare did not originate the phrase "Et tu, Brute?", but he is of course the most famous author to use it.

Other times, it can have a pragmatic reason, since sometimes having the person be foreign is necessary to the plot. (For example, in the play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', a minor plot revolves around an innocent woman being sentenced to death primarily because she spoke no English and no-one could understand her Hungarian. Obviously, this wouldn't work when the show was performed in Hungary, so the Hungarian was changed to Chinese.)