I do speak French, and being able to speak and read the language makes a huge difference. I visited Germany as a day-trip with a French friend who also did not speak German, and even with two people it was very difficult.
My friend knew a little bit about German culture, so that helped out a bit in terms of finding restaurants etc. Ironically we had to rely upon my very minimal Russian skills to talk to the wait-staff. It was a sausage restaurant, so what we wound up doing was picking 3 sausages each from a tray of raw sausages, and paying a flat price. Since the restaurant was a small country restaurant, everyone in the place pretty much pulled their tables together and we all held a conversation that was basically a giant charades festival with a few very simple words exchanged, because of the language barrier. The food was good, we had fun, and the Germans got plastered.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-08-13 11:38 pm (UTC)My friend knew a little bit about German culture, so that helped out a bit in terms of finding restaurants etc. Ironically we had to rely upon my very minimal Russian skills to talk to the wait-staff. It was a sausage restaurant, so what we wound up doing was picking 3 sausages each from a tray of raw sausages, and paying a flat price. Since the restaurant was a small country restaurant, everyone in the place pretty much pulled their tables together and we all held a conversation that was basically a giant charades festival with a few very simple words exchanged, because of the language barrier. The food was good, we had fun, and the Germans got plastered.