Dragon Naturally Speaking Portable Español

[Kenneth]

Since a good amount of TV is produced in California, specifically southern California, which shares a border with Mexico, and since Spanish is the second language of the United States with a 13% share of speakers as of 2021, it is only natural that American TV writers would insert Spanish words and phrases into their series to make things seem more foreign. This trend has become popular in Japan recently, though it has a ways to go before it becomes as popular as German or English. But since more and more people in the US speak Spanish (and Spanish-speakers are increasingly present in all professions and classes, including entertainment), Spanish is becoming more and more common in both fiction and real life.

While more realistic "Spanglish" usage and code-switching has slowly become more common in media as a result of the above, this trope traditionally (and most often) comes in the form of a given work's resident Spanish speaker only using Spanish terms that most English users know (such as "s" meaning "yes", or "amigo" meaning "friend") but otherwise speaking in perfect English. It's a way for the writers to remind us that the character is from a Spanish-speaking country and therefore exotic, but exactly why the character needs to slip back into Spanish for such simple terms is never quite explained. In certain places, such as Southern California, the high number of Spanish speakers makes a cursory knowledge unavoidable, and even non-native speakers will use common Spanish nouns or verbs in conversation, but never common English particles, even among people who primarily speak Spanish. For example, no one in history who has spoken any level of English has ever code-switched between ultra-basic words like "yes" and "si", "sir/Mr." and "seor", or "hola" and "hello". See also Poirot Speak.

This is very, very common among childrens' educational shows, both live action and animated. The Primo liver may be added to existing shows, or by starting with the Five-Token Band right off the bat. It will obviously carry over to any branded books, video games and web site/games, too.

See Everything Sounds Sexier in French for some of the connotations of the use of Spanish, such as the average Internet male talking about Salma Hayek or Penlope Cruz. Compare also with El Spanish "-o". For the actual Spanish language, see Spanish Language.

Animacin asitica (Asian Animation)

• Happy Heroes: In Season 7 episode 47, the ambassador of Suspicious Planet is recovering in the hospital and gets comments on a tablet. One of the comments clearly displays "hola" in Latin script.
• In the Simple Samosa episode "Jalebi's Birthday", Jalebi helps Dhokla to get untangled from some LED lights and expects him to wish her a happy birthday when he thanks her. When Jalebi asks him if he has anything to say besides "thank you", Dhokla doesn't get the hint and just says "thank you" again... in English and Gujurati, which are changed in the English dub to French and Spanish respectively.Dhokla: Merci, merci, gracias, gracias!

Animacin de la Red (Web Animation)

• Played for Laughs in Red vs. Blue. Due to a problem when installing his speech unit, the robot Lopez only speaks Spanish, a language none of his teammates understand - and neither do the creators (which are from another state close to Mexico, Texas), meaning the lines written through online translators are usually incorrect and don't match the English subtitles. This is especiallly the case in the earlier seasons, as before Google Translate came into being, Rooster Teeth had to use the Babelfish, which was universally seen as a poor translator even at the time. Even further in Season 9, where in a recreation of the earlier seasons, Sarge reveals that he ordered the Spanish model of robot so that the team could grow closer by learning Spanish together.
• In Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers, Dr. Mario attempts to cure a pregnant Tinky Winky, by using fire, hammer, and Nintendo. After that, this happens:Dr. Mario: This is your last chance. You take the blue pill, you take the red pill.Toad: Por que no las dos?
• Cortez from the internet Machinima The Leet World uses Gratuitous Spanish frequently. His brother Mendoza and the Ocho Muertos terrorist group also use it.
• Anon: Hunter and Antonio always tend to talk in Spanish whenever they need to talk in public without anyone understanding them.
• Blood Sun Vendetta: With the story set in Mexico, there tends to be much gratuitous Spanish often, the titles of each episode is also written in Spanish.

Cmics de la Red (Webcomics)

• Parodied in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja issue 3, which has such a character, together with footnotes painstakingly translating each well-known Spanish word into English. Taken to its logical extreme here.
• Charby the Vampirate: As Spanish is Zeno's first language he slips into it sometimes when surprised, stressed or upset.
• Girl Genius:
• Professor Diaz tends to pepper his sentences with Spanish. (His introductory page alone has two examples.)
• Tarvek believes Spanish is "muy sexy."
• Irregular Webcomic! here, with a follow-up nearly 4 years later.
• Something*Positive featured in sparse instances the infamous Pepito Sanchezberg, a Mexican sex midget which was enslaved by theater tycoon Avagadro Pompeii; having very limited instances to actually have human contact with someone else, Pepito exclusivelly spoke a gratuitous and extremely broken Spanish. Later, author R. K. Milholland justified this in two ways: first, he argued that he always hated the character, so he never bothered with grammatically correct Spanish (even when fans offered to do it for him), and second, in canon, Pepito has spoken English from quite a while, but refrained to do so to mooch on everyone's pity. Later, Milholland killed him in the bloodiest way possible by being dismembered by rampant catgirls at a convention.
• Neko Sugar Girls is infamous for its use of Gratuitous Japanese but also features Gratuitous Spanish. Koneko in particular uses a lot despite supposedly being Asian.
• In episode 7:Koneko-chan: Hitoshi-san! Vente aqui!
• In Episode 8:Koneko-chan: You can just sit in this mochila for awhile.
• In episode three when Hitoshi thanks Raku for saving him from Kidnapper-kun, she says de nada.
• Koneko-chan says "pinche cabron" in the finale, which is a pretty vulgar term while loosely translated to "asshole".

Literatura (Literature)

• In The Bad Guys stories, Mr. Piranha often tosses out words like "hermano", "chico", and "amigo" when talking to his mates. (Like most Real Life piranhas, he's from South America.)
• Justified in These Savage Bones, as all the characters are technically speaking Spanish to begin with.
• The Dinosaur Lords uses a lot of Spanish phrases and words, mostly in official situations such as speeches, but characters also spice their phrases with Spanish in regular conversations from time to time.
• The children in Good Omens use this (along with an assortment of stereotypically Spanish props, like onions and a straw donkey) to give their re-enactment of The Spanish Inquisition extra authenticity. They use such inquisitorial phrases as ol and viva Espaa.
• Ivanhoe features a Black Knight who goes by the name "Desdichado" - "Unfortunate". He attends a tournament that takes place in England, but is not Spanish - it's a pseudonym to throw off suspicion.
• In The Little Sister, Hollywood starlet Dolores Gonzales peppers her speech with Spanish words and phrases as part of her exotic ethnic persona. By the end of the novel, it's starting to grate on Marlowe, particularly since she has a limited repertoire so he's been hearing the same couple of words over and over.
• Jorge from The Maze Runner Trilogy peppers his speech with Spanish phrases. Justified as its reasoned the Scorch is in lower Mexico or Central America.
• The Little Red Pen stars a Spanish-speaking thumbtack.
• N.E.R.D.S. team member Julio "Flinch" Escala slips into this from time to time. Ironically, Book 4 reveals that he isn't fluent enough to fully understand the Spanish soap operas his grandmother watches.
• Dark Flame from Relativity speaks South-American Spanish and, as a superhero who often patrols Hispanic neighborhoods, frequently needs to speak it. However, when she does her speech is rendered as English with Spanish phrases peppered through it.
• Skippyjon Jones often uses Spanish words, since the children's book series is mainly intended to teach Spanish as a foreign language.

Obras de fans (Fan Works)

• A Crown of Stars: Sparsely used, but during the South American liberation campaign some random characters used some Spanish words or stock sentences. Chapter 47's title is "Bienvenido A La Reina Del Plata". In chapter 48 words such like "jefe" ("chief", "boss") or "fiesta" ("party") are used.
• Advice and Trust: In chapter 8, Misato says: "I want a watermelon daiquiri and air conditioning, pronto."
• Amazing Fantasy
• Melissa uses some of this while visiting a cafe to meet up with Harry Osborn in the "Tangled Web of Spider-Woman" sidestory.
• Miles also uses this when speaking to his mom, owing to his Puerto Rican heritage.
• In Code SAW, Cassidy thinks "Ay, Dios mo," which means "Oh, my God" in Spanish.
• Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: Calvin responds "S?" when someone taps him on the shoulder.
• Da Princess in da gle club features an extreme example of this when Spanish teacher Mr "Shoe" tells Princess, in Spanish, that he loves her and that flamers are retards. The problem? He's actually talking Slovenian. And most of what he says isn't even translated anyway. (To be fair, Spanish is immediately below Slovenian on Google Translate.)
• The Miraculous Ladybug fic Eye of the Beholder has Alya becoming the wielder the Peacock Miraculous, and chooses her superhero name seemingly to balance out the Gratuitous English of Ladybug and the somewhat less Gratuitous French of Chat Noir. While writing a Ladyblog post about herself, she has a flashback to a trip to the zoo with her father during which he taught her English and Spanish names of various animals, including the peacock. "My name is Pavo Real."
• In The Legend of Royal Blue and La Sylphide, Gabriel Agreste was raised by his Spanish mother, so he tends to speak it instead of French when he's at ease or as a Foreign Cuss Word. He rarely goes a sentence without Spanish as Royal Blue (ironically, a Gratuitous English name) to go with the Dashing Hispanic persona.
• The suspiciously Spain-like country that the Lancre witches visit in Witches Abroad is elaborated on in the Discworld fanfic of A.A. Pessimal. In this expanded universe, the country is called Toleda, and its inhabitants, when speaking Morporkian with an accent, are marked by gleefully random and gratuitous use of the tilda over the letter "". This is used very freely, together with the inverted "" at the front of exclamations and the inverted "" at the start of questions.
• Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 11, when several sailors spot Superman, one of them exclaims:"Qu fue eso? Fue un avin?" Paolo called."!Es Superman!"
• In Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami, Naomi thanks Dark by saying "GRACIAS!" The problem? The character is supposed to be speaking Gratuitous French (although it's difficult to tell, as she says things like "I fortez je was mort!").
• As the name of the Lucky Star fic Mscara Sonreindo implies, there's a Spanish element to the story. The chapter titles are all in Spanish. This is because Misao is taking Spanish lessons and learning how to tango.
• My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic has Dyno and Myte, who are blatant ripoffs of Ms y Menos.
• The One I Love Is...: The title of the never-finished sequel is "Que Sera Sera" (meaning -after a fashion- "Whatever happens, happens". Incidentally it is incorrect. It should be written: "Lo Que Ser, Ser".)
• Mrs. Talavera from the Turning Red fanfic The Panda Chronicles sprinkles a few Spanish words into her dialogue, such as "hola", "mi chiquito", and "hermano".
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Xvital occasionally slips into Burroeso (read: Spanish) when exasperated.
• Qt Quarrel: When Nikki insinuates she may hit on Lincoln, Ronnie Anne violently threatens her not to in Spanish.Ronnie Anne:Si tanto como el olor de mi Lincoln. Mi beb conejito de miel. Te voy a rasgar en pedazos y alimentar a mis gatos. ENTIENDES?!"note If you try so much as get a smell of my Lincoln. My baby honey bunny. I'm going to rip you to pieces and feed it to my cats. YOU UNDERSTAND?!
• The main character of the fic Rainbow in the Dark speaks in English, but his mother language is Spanish. There's a few times when he speaks in Spanish, one of which is a title drop: Arco iris en la oscuridad (Rainbow in the dark). Given that the writer is Spanish too, it could count as Bilingual Bonus.
• The Seven Names of Envy Angevin (Fullmetal Alchemist) has a hilariously-subverted version of this; Envy is disguised as an Arizona girl called Julia Vasquez; he proceeds to insert random Spanish words, curses and pet names everywhere. Where did he get these? Two years of Spanish class and the Internet.
• In This Bites!, this comes with the voice that Soundbite gives Scissors the giant crab.
• Parodied in Those Lacking Spines, where Pence speaks an unintelligible mess of Spanish, English, and Gratuitous Japanese."Watashi wa wanta tots domo muchos, minna-san!""Iie, iie, no way Jose.""Dnde est la biblioteca? La biblioteca esta all! Dnde est Pedro? Pedro esta en la biblioteca! Pedro esta all!"
• Quite a few Welcome to Night Vale fanfics do this in regards to Carlos, particularly in intimate moments. Keep in mind, as of this writing Carlos has yet to actually speak any Spanish in canon.
• In the Bones fanfic, "The When and the How; A Bone to Pick", when Booth and Bones are enjoying a romantic dinner, Bones whispers a sentence in Spanish in Booth's ear; "Un da, nos vamos a duchar juntos. Y ese da, cuando nosotros estemos por fin solos, voy a ensearte cuanto te quiero." Translation: "One day, we will shower together. And on that day, when we are finally alone, I will show you how much I love you."
• Universe Falls: In "Scaryoke", the Gems try to deflect the attention of Agent Powers and Agent Trigger by claiming to be from Spain, which Garnet backs up by saying "Es precioso all en esta poca del ao." ("It's beautiful there this time of year.")
• Spanish is very present in Fire Emblem Heroes: Kiran's Story. Every time Kiran is alone he speaks in Spanish, his thoughts are also in this language. He constantly uses it to swear or complain. In the chapters where his past is shown almost all the dialogues are in Spanish, which makes sense since his family appears and all of them are Mexicans. There's a heartwarming and funny scene between Kiran and Nino that also contains Gratuitous Japanese.
• In Becoming a True Invader, the Employer peppers his dialogue with Spanish, which he claims is his native language. It's very confusing for everyone else.

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