Meet Oma, my host dad's mother. One of the sweetest and loving person I have met. I was a little nervous for Oma and Opa to come stay with me, just me... because I imagined communicating was going to be tough. Guess they thought the same because they brought a huge English-German dictionary with them. Despite the little amount of German I can converse with and the little English she can, we found ourselves having deep conversations about family, culture, Canada, Germany even while on the tram without the use of the dictionary. People gave us funny stares wondering how we were communicating but it just worked. We understood each other. Most of the time I forget that we were speaking different languages...
Sign language goes a long way, farther than language itself.
What I have learned from this experience is that there is no such thing as 'language barrier' so stop using that as an excuse. If two people really want to communication, they will find a way to do so.
Though, do not get me wrong... when living abroad it is important to learn the primary language. Put in a little effort to learn the basics at the very least, it will take you a long way. Don't be so narrow minded and think everyone should speak English.
