When neither could speak English, speak your own tongue
Below is a particular scene from my Vietnam tour back in January 2005 with my classmates. It serves as a good example for you whenever you visit any particular place where none of the locals have any good command of English language.
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I heard Li Xing, my PRC Chinese pal, trying to make a bargain for packs of coconut candy with the Vietnamese villagers... in Mandarin language.
After he had purchased the sweets, I asked him, "How could you speak Chinese to them? Did they understand Chinese?"
"Well... Of course not", he laughed me off.
"So... Why didn't you speak English to them?"
"Don't you notice, T? They didn't understand English very well. So it doesn't make much difference whether I spoke English or my own language to them"
I saw the logic then.
When I myself tried to bargain the coconut candies earlier on, I had done my best to simplify my English so that those Vietnamese villagers would understand me...to no avail.
I should've spoken Indonesian language to them instead.
And combine it with sign languages too.
hahaha i've heard such experience many times before. in non-english-spoken countries where the locals can't speak....no wait wait, they even don't understand English even in its passive form LOL
so why bother to speak in our own then? :D