It’s the basis of any good crush: what does he sound like?
Ladies, hang onto your hats, we’re talking about Callen’s language skills.
We all agree, right? There’s something incredibly sexy about the way a guy can speak a language that we don’t know. Have the man tell me my hair looks bad in Spanish, I’ll bat my eyelashes. Have him tell me I’m “a bit of a brumby” with that Australian accent, I’ll giggle like a school girl in the presence of Justin Bieber.
See, it doesn’t matter the words, so much as the flare.
And it doesn’t matter the meaning, so much as the mystery.
When we first heard Callen speak Russian, even with the sound of cold consonants, oh, yes, Team Callen got the shivers, and it had nothing to do with cold.
The questions he posed in Spanish during the first episode. Did anyone else grin stupidly at their television, just eating it up?
What about the “language battle” of sorts with Lauren Hunter? Waltzing through Polish, Russian, German, Italian, French…
Half of us were on the floor. Wait, someone get the smelling salts. We lost a few back there.
We love how everything is translated for us, but let’s be clear: we’d be just fine without fully knowing what’s being said. (I mean, we can Google Translate it later.) We just want the man to speak. Let him get angry and yell it in Russian or Romanian. Let him whisper insults at Deeks’ hair in Polish or Italian. Tell Sam a joke in Spanish. Just let us listen. Please.
The episode where Callen has to speak Chechen to infiltrate the terrorist cell? Even in fumbling through his declension and having Hetty correct him over and over, it was something to behold.
I would love to see a full discussion between Hetty and Callen in another language, just so we could listen to how he sounds for a longer period of time. The last time we had meaningful language fun between the two of them, Russian Scrabble was involved. THAT was fun. A Twitter shout-out for the person who can tell me what episode THAT fun was from.
The rest of you: what language would you like to hear G Callen speak in?
#LanguagesOfCallen
It has to be Russian! Love it.
human sacrifice S2 ep1
Oh wow, you were so close in this guess, it was frightening!! You will get a Honorable Mention on Twitter for your quick thinking. Please reply with your Twitter handle. (:
liz nichols@elizabe68554280
Gotcha!
Ah, such a great post to react on. I simply love Slavic languages, yet that is a large range to chose from. Polish, Russian, but also from the former Yugoslavia. They sound exciting to me 😉
That goes for Spanish and Portugese too, although I understand those languages much better. Never, ever have the guy try Hungarian or Finish, far to strange to listen to. Welsh or Basque must be odd as well.
Actually, i don’t really mind. Best thing of course would be hearing G. Callen in my mother tongue, another lesser used language. Frisian.
Wolsto dat ris besykje, dan soest my werklik hiel bliid meitsje kinne!
I believe he will look amanzing speaking in portuguese, italian or spanish… Mainly portuguese, of course 🙂
That episode was from HumanTraffic one of my favorite Deeks episodes and one of my favorite Hetty/Callen moments! Goody!
“I win. Goody.” – Hetty says in Russian, after Callen helps her form a high-scoring word on the Russian Scrabble board.
YOU win, as well! Congrats!
Reply with your Twitter handle, and I’ll get you a shout-out.
It was season 2 episode 1 human traffic, right after deeks met with hetty. 🙂
Great post! Thanks! I’ve been rewatching Season 3 / Betrayal just the other day. Was that Sudanese Callen spoke when he was warning Sam in the hotel with Jada? I did like that, too… Other than that I think I’ll go for the Slavic languages. I dont’ understand a single word but as Richtsje so rightly put it – they sound exciting 🙂
This was a great scene between Hunter and Callen but I have never seen it before. Was in an extra scene on the DVD or something? Other than that he speaks pretty good French and his accent is quite good. I was not expecting that seeing how often French is messed up on TV (not that my own French isn’t terrible). So go Callen on that count.
For me the use of languages in the series is a key element, the “languge battle” between Hunter and Callen ending in “Roma” was one of the best language moments or Callen and Hetty at Russian Scrabble.
I love the way the series uses some rather obscure languages like Roma, which has it’s own disitinct dialects, Callens skills are with the Russian/Slavic area, his Arabic is not to hot,( there have been a few errors from everyone when using classical Arabic)
Sam has some Japanese plus Arabic, Kensie Spanish, French, Portugese, Deeks Spanish anything else? Hetty it would appear has many language skills, in including Romanish, but as long as they keep Callen using his skills I will be very happy.
Richtsje ….Welsh is a Gaelic based language and lovely to listen to either spoken or sung, catch Bryn Terfyll or Aled Jones singing Welsh traditional songs……
Ahhhh. It’s the Russian for me. You are so right about the “mystery” thing. It just adds to what I like about our G. He’s been places and done things no one else will ever hear about(except maybe his little Operations Manager who knows everything.)
And you reminded me of how much I loved the scene where he is brushing up on his Chechen. Callen is just so smart, and headstrong, and bratty – but there is a touch of innocence in the way he is moldable, eager to learn. Don’t ask me why, but that scene with Hetty was borderline sweet. Now how’s that for suddenly taking a left turn and getting waaaay off the “sexy” side of the silky languages?
Thanks for the post, Keviana! It was a blast to read and ponder!!!