Which languages does MacGyver speak and how much do you think he knows of each one?

I know he went through German, French and Russian in Ghost ship, but not sure if he would know any more than hello, good bye and thank you in those languages.

What do thing?

One episode (can't come up with the name and I have too little time to look it up, should be in OPS room already) he's in the woods in Eastern Germany saving his friend (that episode in which he's on the hood of the car, fixing the breaks while it's speeding downhill)

They're caught up by the enemy and then he says

"Ich bin MacGyver, un das hier, das ist meine Frau"
(yes, it's correct German)

OK so we could assume he can speak decent German?

We know from Lost love that 90% of his mandarin consists of saying hello.

Considering all the worldwide travel MacGyver does in his work, I would say he probably has a working knowledge of many languages...obviously, he probably would have had to study a language in high school and maybe college- so he probably knows at least one pretty well- and I would think maybe just rudimentary knowledge of others...

I'd have to look back over the episodes some to figure out which languages he's shown knowledge of- but I do remember him trying different languages in "Ghost Ship"...and the episode Sheepy mentioned is "The Enemy Within"

*wracks brain*

I know I wrote these down somewhere...

German, obviously, a little French, quite a bit of Russian (even if his accent is lousy! ), a touch of Mandarin, probably more than a smidgen of Spanish ('Mucho gusto hombre!' ) The words he used to direct the dogsled dogs in 'Mask of the Wolf' were Inuit, I think.

I can't remember if he listed Italian and Greek during his conversation with Karin Graff.

I'm willing to bet that he can say 'Hello', ‘Goodbye’, and 'Don't shoot!" in Bulgarian, Peruvian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Czech, Arabic, and Swedish... but that's just a wild guess!

Peruvian? Wouldn't that be called "Spanish"?

And yeah, I bet MacGyver knows how to say "Don't shoot!" in A LOT of languages!!! LOL

You're probably right!

Can we count 'Minnesotan' as a language?

If Mac's German is so good, how come Nikki asks him "... How did you ever manage to ask him about his sister's feet?..." as they are driving up to the Aspenhaus in GX-1? Her German needs improvement too.

Unless, of course he did that intentionally to annoy her...

Mac was definitely trying to improve his Russian in Gold Rush. At the end of the episode when Pete interrupts Mac and Natalie, Mac says "... That's OK Pete - I was working on my Russian. But I think the lesson is over..." and Natalie replys "... Only for now..."

I'm not saying his German is good, just that the sentence of The Enemy Within (thank you MacGyver!) was correct German. Okay maybe he didn't exactly nail it when pronouncing it, but grammatically it was correct.

It might be correct German grammar, but isn't the jist of what he's saying that the guy standing next to him is a woman?

And he said something about applesauce...

I've always wondered exactly what he was saying...

I think he was saying the guy next to him was his wife.
Why would a person come up with something like that to say when faced with armed men!? I took it to mean that he only knows set phrases like those you learn at school and it was the first German phrase that popped in to his head.

Well, I know in " Silent World " he shows us that he can speak in sign language also. Would that count as a language related to this question ? Or are you only looking for spoken languages ?
Sincerely,
Kate Mackay

I actually hadn't thought of that.. but I think it should count as a language of its own.

Kate in some Collages are now Teaching ASL (American Sign Language) for credits. So I would say YES!!!


I would also add in Arabic and or Farsi. Granted not much but just enough to know when he's completely out of luck.

German (rusty), Russian, French, Spanish and Mandarin. Those are a certainty from all those assignments in East-Germany, all the run-ins with the Soviets, French classes or from going Toulon with Jack and Cherbourg with Zoë Ryan or maybe from going to French-Africa as in Brainwashed and Kambezi in Black Rhino, Spanish from all the assignment in Central-America and Mandarin from all the assignments in Asia.
Never heard him speak Arabic though. But he had his assignments in the Middle-East, so he should've caught words here and there.

Greek I don't think so but I think he said Italian. I think he mentions three languages. French, German and Italian.

What about Hungarian and Romanian?
All these assignments all around the world and they all speak English? With and without accents?
For instance his assignment in Bulgaria where he met Penny Parker? Okay that guy speaks somewhat English.
Maybe in all those assignments it's a matter of catching words here and there.

That was the point I was trying to get a cross MG, that he probably knows a smattering of words in a bunch of languages.

The German sentence in this episode was a lot longer actually, and I'm still trying to figure out the middle of it. I'm just not able to understand it acoustically. It seems to me like a string of words that don't make sense, maybe he left some out so that it is confusing.

So I can't say much about his grammar from this one sentence.

I always understood it as apple juice? Which in German should be Apfelsaft, actually. And doesn't fit into this sentence at all

Here is what I understand so far:

"Ich bin ein Soviet officer" (officer is English pronounced, we say Sowjetoffizier)

Then the Russian says "Bitte?"

"Und wir muss (müssen) gehen zu dem Hause bitte wo ich gehe eine Freunde von mir in die Applejuice for in die Flugplatz - und sie ist meine Frau!"


Interestingly enough, the German dubbing may be of some help. If I remember right, he says something about his friends waiting in that house and that the caviar is waiting at the table, which he doesn't mention in the original.

You might be right about that! There is a commercial in Germany right now where a Japanese says that he wants to buy this carpet but the waitress brings him the right beer nonetheless



By the way, great thinking about the sign language, Kate!