I was so thankful for signs being written in English whilst I was on my student exchange to Japan. I can sort of read Hiragana, but that's as far as my reading skills in Japanese extend.

I always try to use German when I go over to Switzerland, where my Dad lives (he lives in the German-speaking part). My German's passable, so I get by. However, the German I know is High German, whereas what they speak in Switzerland is 'Schwarze Deutsche', Swiss German. It's almost exactly the same, but there are a few small differences. So, even if they can't tell I'm English, they know that I'm not from around there.