Indamiddle's idea of a piece of paper and drawing pictures is an excellent one.
When it comes to a meal service, I carry with me a copy of the inflight menu (which is written in English and the other language). When I get to a passenger I cannot communicate with, I simply point to the menu. When it comes to drinks, I simply signal that I am drinking...and then pull out various items from the cart top, like OJ, Coke, Wine etc....until they nod and take it from me.
I have also found that using some form of universal basic hand gestures/sign language helps (I'm not referring to the hearing-impaired version, just the universal common hand/body gestures).
Yelling at non-English passengers is what Australian Customs are really good at. They seem to think that people will understand you if you keep raising your voice. Australian Customs are perhaps one of the most ignorant and rude bunch of border control people I have ever come across. We are all human beings...no need to shout at people like they are dogs....and certainly no need to take people's dignity away.