It can be, but I have always been attracted to foreign language (since falling in love with Japan around age 14), and I'm used to being "in the dark" about what is being said. After I went to university, I chanced upon meeting a bunch of Romanians and they became my best friends, and I would spend hours (often intoxicated) trying to understand the conversation, until, eventually, I just could. I can't contribute, but I developed a 6th sense for understanding body language, facial expressions, and just the dynamics of a conversation, without the words. In fact, it's kinda like how a baby learns language.
I studied and became fluent in Spanish, Arabic & Japanese before I graduated, and now I'm here in Turkey and the Turkish is coming to me quickly. I can have a conversation with basically anybody, but it's never all that deep. In time...
A surprising amount of people do speak English in this part of the world, and the ones that don't are incredibly friendly all the same. "Getting by" isn't really a problem...the real issues start when they simply give too much!
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