Describe a time when you had to use a foreign language

I'd like to describe a time when I had to use English to solve a problem at an airport in Frankfurt, two years ago. I was travelling to a conference and had a connecting flight, but my first plane was delayed, and I arrived at the airport with only thirty minutes before my second flight departed.

As soon as I got off the plane, I realised that I'd have to ask for help. I found a transfer desk, but the queue was long, and the staff were speaking quickly. I could hear several people ahead of me getting confused. When my turn came, I explained that my flight from Tashkent had arrived late and that I needed to reach gate B-forty before the departure. The woman at the desk asked a number of questions, and I answered as clearly as I could. At one point, I didn't know the word for boarding pass in German, so I switched to English and pointed at my ticket.

Fortunately, she understood me perfectly, printed a new document and told me the fastest route. I ran through the terminal, and made the flight with only two minutes to spare.

I think I communicated quite well. Of course, my grammar wasn't perfect, and I was breathless and stressed, but I managed to get my message across. It made me feel proud, since this was the first time I'd used English in a real emergency, not in a classroom. It showed me that confidence matters just as much as accuracy.