This is an area where being introverted can be an advantage because introverts are often much less into verbal communication ANYWAY in their own language, and are more practiced at a kind of sign language of pointing at things or talking very closed-endedly with an economy of words to try to avoid misunderstanding.

They're also better at sussing things out in other ways that don't involve asking a person, if that's the nature of the communication. Males especially are stereotyped as not wanting to do that.

Throw in a language barrier and voila, it can become adaptive. Of places I go regularly I probably get the most barrier in deep South America (many people speak no English at all). The high-school Spanish helps along with the mime routine in some instances (if there's something to point out that helps). Yet I also reserve the right to play the dumb-foreigner card for less-desired interactions where there's suddenly amnesia on the Spanish.

It also helped at least somewhat on an Indonesia trip once to Maluku and Irian Jaya which to this day is my best trip. East of Bali the English prevalence just fell off a cliff.

The point being that if you're normally not someone who relies a lot on verbal communication (and get to be misunderstood like a lot of introverts), it can actually be to your advantage in dealing with a sudden language barrier.