I went to La Cote DIvoire in Africa. It's a francophone country and all I could speak was my local dialect, Twi and English. I had next to nothing knowledge about French. I went there and it was very very boring in the first couple of weeks. But I had a friend who understood both English and French.. He spoke the French language n used signs alongside so I grasped some basics early. Like "come,go,eat,food,hunger, good morning, etc) when I got these basics ,Iife became a little easier. Then he spoke the French straight to me. If he sees I don't get it he translates. Within 6months I was 50% conversant