Being in Germany and not speaking German really gives me a taste of what it's like to be illiterate. The number of times I've walked up to a sign, started "reading it" and realized that it has exclusively words I don't know is shocking. All capacity with language gets thrown out the window, because it's the wrong language.
Today was maybe the worst for it, because I had a museum pass that's good for a bunch of museums around Cologne, and had to show it to people a bunch. It was just like in Fifth Element, with me holding my pass up. "Multipass" I would say, smiling and hoping that my meaning, and the card, would make it clear.
I can point my phone at things to get a translation, which mostly works except when it doesn't, and there's a lot of friction involved.
The other day I was walking down a winding forest path next to a hill and came across a warning sign, so I got out my phone, pointed it at the sign, waited for the translator to make up its mind, and finally got back "Danger: Falling Rocks!". So I'd been sitting there like a moron, standing under the falling rocks sign, totally oblivious. I didn't get hit by any rocks, nor see them falling, but it would have been pretty funny.
