Cabs and maps : Lost in translation

What do french, spanish and italian have in common...?

Latin roots ! For a Parisian-ista traveling to Barcelona or Milan, language is not really a barrier. When in China, she frowns when realizing her survival chinese phrase book is not that useful...

Side note: Careful the things you say here...by using a different tone for one word, its meaning can be dramatically changed !

The independent adventurous traveler (she thought she was) is quite frustrated: the most simple thing is difficult to ask... Indeed, what do you do when :

• no one around speaks english ?
• sign language is ineffective ?
• the only map you have is written in characters ?
• you can't find your hotel business card ?
• you forgot your subway stop name ?
• your one and only chinese friend's phone is off and the taxi driver wants to throw you out of the window ?

YES, you freak out ! > This is what you get for laughing at tourists back home... (insert evil laugh and karma definition here)

A week in beautiful Shanghai and 6 hours of chinese class later, our frenchie has a little bit more confidence: she can pronounce her address correctly and even knows how to introduce herself. Can't wait for her next cab ride to show off !!! She gets in the car and proudly tells the driver where she wants to go and where she is from blah blah blah... when condescendingly and in a perfect english he replies : "Don't sweat it, I am not Chinese, I am Japanese, where are you going again ? "

Any crazy abroad experience ? Please share, I am sure it will make her feel better...