I had experience with the charades act. Got food poisoning or a stomach bug in Sofia, Bulgaria and had to act out vomiting and diarrhea at the chemists desk. Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction.

I think I could have been successful if I knew some French, but alas, I opted for Spanish in high school. At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certain age had French for their second (or third) language, and the younger folks had English.