Originally Posted by
CPRich
A combination of learning a few phrases in their language, finding someone who speaks your language, or settling on a third. And lucking out with material in a language you understand (e.g. Inka and Machu Picchu museums were both dual Spanish/English).
I was once on a trip in Italy and had a nice conversation with a Romanian couple in French. Out of the blue I took a shot with "Parlez-vous Francais?" and we were off.
I'm thinking back to 1975, Romania. We had a run-in with the police over a supposed over-stay (their official messed up, we did nothing wrong.) Quite a language problem until my mother and the official we were talking to found they both spoke some German. (And my father's German was rustier than hers--he could basically understand their conversation but couldn't add to it.)
Between English, French, and a poco Espanol, I've managed to get by. But I haven't traveled to inner China or similar places. I suspect gestures, photos, etc., would be needed if I headed somewhere like that. Or a Guide/Translator.
I have spent a fair amount of time off the tourist path in China. While most of the time my wife handles communication I do go out on my own a bit. When both people know how things are supposed to go down it's usually possible to accomplish your objective with little if any language in common.
These days a phone is a
big help. I don't set foot in a country without having the offline translation for that language loaded into Google Translate. It's not as good as the online translation but it works even without coverage or a SIM. Unfortunately, I haven't solved the problem that android handwriting recognition is online only. I can do English -> Chinese on my phone but if I don't have a connection they can't reply. It's something that experience helps with, especially if both people are used to working around a language barrier. (In our dating time we had a major language barrier, "smartphone" wasn't a word and our translation was limited to a British -> Chinese dictionary but not the reverse. We got very creative at getting things across. The one that really puzzled listeners is the chemical symbols are the same and we both have taken chemistry classes--thus we would sometimes use a chemical formula when she didn't know the English name for something.)