Korean or English?

I just had a very funny but very productive conversation with the hotel maid. She spoke entirely in Korean and I spoke entirely in English yet we both somehow understood what the other person was saying. I have had my share of frustrating situations when I don't understand the local language and the locals don't understand me. However, most of the time we are able to find a way to communicate and I usually find it pretty entertaining. I guess there were years of communicating without translation books, etc and people had to find a way. And really, there are some universal ways to communicate via hand gestures. The biggest thing that I have found is to have a smile on your face. If you show frustration people are generally less likely to stick around until you come to some sort of understanding - but if you have a smile on your face they tend to want to help you.

Anyway, the maid has agreed not to clean my room today (at my request) and I have politely taken the two bottles of water that she offered to me.

Am off to the office for my second day of training the local staff...more on that later.