Well, I remember myself in this situation ... long time ago, though For me, it was a huge leap forward to invest the relatively small effort to learn to read cyrillic letters - this made many things easier, given the many russian words with latin roots. That was a good starting point to read maps, bus schedules, signs, menus ... without that it was pretty tough

Would that be an option? Without that, he may be better off hiring a guide for the first day or so.