After college, I ended up going to law school and becoming an attorney in Atlanta. My Russian language skills quickly faded from lack of use. Several years after I began practicing law, the attorney in the office next to mine began representing some Russian clients who were parties to a lawsuit here in the United States. Although he spoke some Russian, his assistant did not. One day, I could hear her speaking loudly to someone on the phone. I could tell that she was getting flustered and frustrated. It was the Russian clients, and my colleague was not in the office to take their call.
I took the phone from her and said (probably not properly, but the best I could muster): "Hello, my name is Ashley. I work with Mr. Hendrix. He is not here but will return later. He will call you." That was pretty much the full extent of our conversation. Afterwards, all I could do was to keep repeating a phrase that I had used often in Russian class: "I don't understand." I was afraid that they would be angry at my lack of ability. To the contrary, they were quite relieved, knowing that we would pass along their message and that they would be taken care of.
And that's been my experience whenever I have tried to speak another language -- whether it is Russian or broken high school French or rudimentary sign language -- people are usually grateful that I've made the effort, and they will work with me to make sure that my message gets across.
