I was in Tokyo demonstrating our software to a group, many of whom didn’t speak English. I let some translate for the others, and when I felt good enough to interject a little bit of my Japanese into the conversation, it really lit up their faces and broke the ice!
NB: a reference to Allo! Allo, a British comedy about a French Cafe under the Nazis, where a British officer, posing as a French Policeman, who thinks he knows French, might be heard to say, “I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty.”