This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Shogun.

Midway through its second episode, FX/Hulu miniseries Shōgun features a moment that could be rife with misunderstanding.

Pilot major John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) has unceremoniously washed ashore in Japan, becoming the first Englishman to do so. No one in Osaka speaks English, having just learned of England’s existence moments ago, so to communicate with this “barbarian,” powerful regent Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) summons the closest thing to a Brit he can find to translate: a Portuguese Catholic priest named Father Martin Alvito (Tommy Bastow).

Since the Portuguese had previously established trade routes with feudal Japan, much of the Catholic clergy there can speak both Portuguese and Japanese. That’s how the scene unfolds then with Blackthorne speaking in his non-native Portuguese to Father Martin who then translates it in his non-native Japanese to Lord Toranaga who...