Lack of English

Our spring break finally arrived and where better for our group to go but to a cold snowy place known as Berlin, Germany! I'm kidding, we were all very excited to go to Germany and especially get to tour a major city! We arrived and went off to find our lovely hotel where we were to stay for the week. It was up a grand stair case and had elaborate entrance doors. Needless to say, it was not the typical hotel a group of college students expected to be staying in.
After this we went to explore before the big traditional dinner that had been arranged for the entire group later that night. This adventure time was when we learned about language barriers. Here are two great examples:
The Knife
I went with three of my friends to grab a curryworst (a very popular form of the bratworst sausage) for lunch. After we had made our purchases we realized that we needed a knife to cut up the food or else we would look like uncivilized people attacking our food mouth first. We volunteered one of the girls to go up to the counter to ask for a knife. The lady working behind the counter simply nodded to our friend, grabbed oranges, a cup and started juicing the oranges. After a few minutes the woman returned and handed the cup full of fresh squeezed orange juice to our friend. Our friend said "no! no! I really just need a knife!" And made cutting motions. To put it mildly, the woman was not pleased. She went to the sink behind the counter and poured the contents of the cup in their while glaring at our friend the whole time. Then she handed our friend a knife with a look that clearly read "Americans."

The Train 
This story is mainly because it is funny with a side of language issues. Before stepping into the train my friends and I had picked up some coffee because Ireland's version of coffee is coffee flavored water. It is not what most people would consider to be coffee. After this purchase we boarded the train to head to our next destination and sat down next to the door. Four rather loud, giggling, clearly American college girls have a tendency to attract attention. Especially when one of the four girls is telling a story and is oblivious to the fact she is simultaneously pouring her coffee directly onto her own leg. Of course, my friends and I start laughing so hard we can't get the words of warning out to our friend who still has not noticed what she is doing and simply thinks we think her story is fantastic. Till an elderly couple, one young guy, and a few other German people our age start to mime to her what she is doing. They are all smiling, some are laughing to and according to our unfortunate friend "making the weirdest sign language" she has ever seen. Eventually our friend felt the coffee after she had managed to deposit half the cup onto her pants. If it had not been for the language barrier I am sure the German people on the train would have stopped her. Or, you know, just laughed along with us.