def get_charstring(option, section_items, language, language_alternate=None):
    """convenience function to return unilingual or multilingual value(s)"""
    section_items = dict(section_items)
    option_value1 = None
    option_value2 = None
    if 'language_alternate' is None:
        option_tmp = '{}_{}'.format(option, language)
        if option_tmp in section_items:
            option_value1 = section_items[option_tmp]
        else:
            try:
                option_value1 = section_items[option]
            except KeyError:
                pass
    else:
        option_tmp = '{}_{}'.format(option, language)
        if option_tmp in section_items:
            option_value1 = section_items[option_tmp]
        else:
            try:
                option_value1 = section_items[option]
            except KeyError:
                pass
        option_tmp2 = '{}_{}'.format(option, language_alternate)
        if option_tmp2 in section_items:
            option_value2 = section_items[option_tmp2]
    return [option_value1, option_value2]
