Talk about miming reminds me of one of my trips to Moscow. I avoid international restaurants with menus in 16 languages of the 'We speke Anglish -Wirr sprecken Duetsch - Oons prat Nederland - Nos parlez Francas - Hablos Espaņa' type.
I found myself in a little cozy place off Tverskaya with menus only in Russian and of course only in Cyrillic. I can read the Cyrillic alphabet but mostly don't know what the words mean. So I'm reading out the words and the lovely waitress is laughing at my pronounciation but then goes into the 'charades' making animal noises to tell me what I might be eating. The whole restaurant explodes into laughter and soon I'm invited to a table with a doctor who speaks Spanish (from working in Cuba), and his family, and I'm eventually invited to their home. What a lovely experience.