Originally Posted by
Reds2011
You forgot to add the part about using hand signals and exaggerated pronunciation
Makes me cringe every time I see it.
One of the best aids to communicate with foreigners is to learn a foreign language.
Before I am accused of being facetious my reason for saying that is that an awful lot of mono-lingual English-speaking folk have little idea of what it is like being on the receiving end -
When you have studied (any) foreign languages, you soon learn to speak in ways that will more easily be understood - simple (but not condescending) words, avoiding colloquialisms and avoiding phrases that may confuse.
An example of the latter is that an English speaker, enquiring after a person's health might say "How are you going"
A puzzled non-English speaker, may with some justification, respond with "I am going by bus"