How to Communicate Abroad When You Don't Speak the Local Language

Resurrecting some of your high school Spanish, French or German can come in handy when you're traveling -- even a little residual Latin can sometimes help you make sense out of a foreign sign. But while basic expressions like "¿Una cerveza, por favor?" and "Où est la piscine?" may be engrained in your brain, they'll only get you so far when it comes to really communicating abroad. So what to do when you're traveling to a place where the signs all look like Greek (or is that Cyrillic?) to you, and making sense of your surroundings doesn't seem so simple after all?