>Ah, shades of what I occasionally run into at work on occasion. There are times where I'm asked to help configure a computer that is configured in Chinese. Don't speak a word of it, and can only read tiny bits of it here and there (and that's only because Japanese language uses some Chinese ideograms -- and admittedly my Japanese language reading skill is limited to about grade school level). Most of the time I'm going by the context of various screens I'm navigating and familiarity with what the configuration screens are like in Windows.

The only thing I found helpful in this direction is to switch languages in the software I regularly use, where possible (practically, just Skype and TotalCommander, both have it in the menu and doesn't require app restart). From time to time I switch to some languages that I speak, or some that I'm kind of familiar with, just to keep up with the terminology (which word they use for cancel, save, file, help etc.). It's fun and then sometimes it actually gives me some clues when I get into a situation like that. If this word is something like that word for cancel, then this other button must mean save...