Now to start off with I am not talking about speaking the language of the country you’re traveling to as that is obviously beneficial. What I am talking about is the ability to speak other languages that could unexpectedly help you out.
On my last flight from the United States to Peru I was sat next to a Japanese Woman who spoke almost know English or Spanish (she was with a tour group, so one assumes that the tour guide spoke Japanese, English, and Spanish as they traveled through the U.S.) and a Chinese man who spoke Japanese fairly well and could get by in English but with much difficulty.
We spoke a bit, and I could understand much of the Japanese (the other two mostly chatted in Japanese while I watched the movie) but when it came time for the drink service or food I had to help them out a bit. It wasn’t anything difficult, just the words for chicken or pasta; or the drink choices milk, coffee, and wine. They tried to use their English with the stewards (and the man from China had much better success), but I had to step in a few times to help them. You could do this with about a week of study in the language as the words I needed to know were so simple and common that even with my poor Japanese skills I could still communicate.
Another instance of my Chinese skills being useful in a somewhat unexpected place is the Chinatown in Lima, Peru. Now there are not a lot of Chinese speakers in Lima, and so there are only a few stores in the Chinatown that actually have Chinese speakers (don’t worry, there are plenty of people who speak Spanish there to help you out). In these stores you can find a bunch of imported goods from China, and so I have bought so Chinese alcohol and snacks there in Chinese. Not really exciting but my Spanish is quite bad and so with my Chinese skills I could not get anything.
These two examples aren’t that exciting but show you that there are times you can use your language skills outside of the country it is spoken.
