History Main / LanguageBarrier

* This forms the core of ''VideoGame/ChantsOfSennar''. Each of the tower's various cultures has their own unique language and multilingualism is pretty much nonexistent so the player has to more or less learn everything from scratch each time they enter a new area. [[spoiler:Fostering communication betwen them by translating their messages is also required to unlock the GoldenEnding.]]

Compare/contrast with AliensSpeakingEnglish, EternalEnglish, UniversalTranslator, {{Omniglot}}, LanguageOfLove, BilingualDialogue and InexplicableLanguageFluency. Supertrope to LanguageFluencyDenial, HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier and TeasingFromBehindTheLanguageBarrier. May be the cause of an OtherworldlyCommunicationFailure.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a language barrier that prevents Alliance and Horde players from communicating in-game. At various points though, cross-faction communication has been possible. For example: at launch, the Forsaken actually had Common (the language of the Alliance) as their racial language. Which makes sense from a lore perspective, since the Forsaken were former Alliance members. In ''Legion'', the Demon Hunter class was introduced. They can speak Demonic, whether they are Alliance or Horde: so they can communicate with each other. ''Battle For Azeroth'' introduces the Allied Race, Void Elves, on the Alliance side, who speak the same Elvish as the Blood Elves on the Horde, allowing for inter-faction communication. Lorewise, there is actually no reason for Alliance and Horde not to be able to speak cross-faction. In terms of gameplay though, there is a good reason: to prevent toxicity in PvP.

* Creator/LuisFernandoVerissimo's Analyst of Bagé once referenced this to a patient questioning his unorthodox thinking:

* ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'' has a quite complex situation regarding its main cast. The five languages spoken are Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish. Finnish is very different from all other four. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are in theory mutually understandable[[note]]All three are very similar in writing, but Danish pronunciation is wildly different from the other two, and is difficult to understand unless spoken slowly. Swedish and Danish are most different, with Norwegian briding the gap due to an unfortunate history of colonization by both neighbours[[/note]]. Icelandic is a distant enough relative of these three to not be mutually understandable with them, but also happens to be the in-universe CommonTongue. Concerning the actual cast, there is:

* ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'' has a quite complex situation regarding its main cast. The five languages spoken are Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish. Finnish is very different from all other four. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are in theory mutually understandable. Icelandic is a distant enough relative of these three to not be mutually understandable with them, but also happens to be the in-universe CommonTongue. Concerning the actual cast, there is:

* ''Literature/TheBridgeOfClay'': Penelope Lesciuszko emigrates to Australia from Poland with almost no knowledge of English and at first she mangles it terribly and speaks with very heavy Polish accent. However, she is very determined and finally becomes a teacher of English.

** [[spoiler:On the Quantum Moon, you can encounter Solanum, [[LastOfHisKind the last living Nomai]] in the solar system. She doesn't understand your speech, while even if her species ''had'' a spoken language, you'd have no way of translating it. Solanum solves this by creating a set of six tiles - "Identify," "Explain," "You," "Me," "Quantum Moon," and "the Eye of the Universe" - which you can combine in pairs, at which point she uses a tool of her own to write her response on a handy surface for you to translate. If you pick "Identify" and "Me," she'll remark that she'd ask you many questions if she could understand you. This is all {{Subverted}} in the GoldenEnding, where you and Solanum can converse without need for translators, likely due to the [[EldritchLocation Eye of the Universe]]'s influence.]]

* In ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'', you can encounter [[spoiler:Solanum, the last living [[{{Precursors}} Nomai]] in the solar system, stuck on the Quantum Moon. While you can understand Solanum by translating the text she writes on the wall with your translator tool, she can't understand anything you say, especially considering the Nomai only communicate through writing and never developed verbal speech. She solves this by giving you a set of tiles, each conveying an object or a request (the request-tiles are Identify and Explain, and the object tiles are You, Me, the Quantum Moon and the Eye of the Universe), which you can place down in front of her to ask her simple questions. If you pick Identify and Me, she'll remark that she'd ask you many questions if she could understand you. {{Subverted}} in the GoldenEnding, where Solanum understands and speaks perfect English, likely due to the [[EldritchLocation Eye of the Universe]]'s influence.]]

* ''Series/Runaways2017'' opens with a young homeless girl being accosted by two men who only speak Spanish. [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront The Pride]] shows up and [[EngineeredHeroics "rescues"]] her from them in exchange for one night [[ChurchOfHappyology at their Church]], while she can't understand them warning her from stepping into the car.

* In ''Manga/{{Beck}}'', bi-national siblings Ryusuke and Maho are bilingual, but most of the other characters -- including main character Koyuki -- speak only Japanese, and a few incidental characters speak only English. Koyuki's utter failure to understand a word of English despite singing in it is played for not-comedy when he runs into some of Maho's American friends, who callously make fun of him to his face, and he has no idea.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E66Two Two]]", two soldiers who survived an apocalyptic war, a man and a woman, are wandering in a deserted city. They don't speak the same language. After they meet, they have to learn how to communicate.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]]", two humanoid space travelers from different races, Colonel Cook and Norda, are stranded on a planet. After they meet, they have to learn how to communicate with each other.

* Being a group with talent from multiple countries, the idols of ''WebAnimation/{{Hololive}}'' can have a bit of an issue with this. From the Japanese talent, only two (Akai Haato/Haachama and Kiryu Coco) can be said to be proficient in English (due to studying in English-speaking countries and coming from America, respectively) while the rest have minimal capabilities that some are trying to change through the use of apps and courses. The girls of the English branch are slightly better what with all of them having some level of Japanese proficiency, particularly Takanashi Kiara who is able to collaborate with any of her Japanese peers and even hosts a show whose purpose is to better connect the Japanese idols with the overseas fans. Most of the girls of the Indonesian branch (except Moona) notably have no problem with this as they are fully capable of speaking Japanese and English in addition to their native Bahasa Indonesia.

* ''VideoGame/StickyBusiness'': In ''[[DownloadableContent Plan With Me]]'', Tim K. can't read Sanjay's letters because they're written in Hindi.