just try

Even though we were an hour-and-a-half early for our train from Nice to Paris, my friend and I almost missed it because we didn't ask anyone where to go. You see, there were two trains, but we thought there was only one. We looked up and down the first one and part of the second one, and we thought they were connected somehow. They weren't. And we almost got stranded in Nice because of it. Thankfully we started talking to this girl from New Jersey who, five minutes before the train was supposed to leave (we were wondering why they wouldn't open the doors) asked one of the guys in bright green vests where to go. He pointed to the other train. She motioned to us. We got on just as the second-to-last whistle was blowing.

I was glad we got on, but seriously? I had just spent 6 weeks in this country trying to learn the language and this girl from New Jersey (my same age), who has been in France for about two weeks and knows none of the language had more guts than I did to communicate with a French person. How embarrassing.

Also, when my friend and I got to Paris we met up with her parents who had flown in the day before. When we got there we found out that her mom had just had her hair cut. She doesn't speak French. The barber didn't speak English. And yet it looked fine. I would have never had the guts to do that.

So in addition to my needing more guts, here's an idea: just try. If it doesn't work, if nothing was communicated, at least you can say that you tried.