The way to get the front row on Journey to the Center of the Earth is to ask "eechee-bahn seki?"worked every time!
I would also recommend spending even just a few weeks listening to a language program like Pimsleur, just so you have some basic phrases. We did fine with just my 2-week crash course.
Although I expected to feel overwhelmed and alienated by not speaking the language, it was actually kind of liberating not to always be absorbing and interpreting everything being said around me! I learned to go with the flow in a way that I have never experienced.