When I first landed in China, a cop in the airport, ordered me to do something in Chinese. I tried to indicate that I didn't understand, but, not understanding me, he repeated himself and waited for me to follow his orders.
He was pretty serious about me doing something, so I got serious about doing something. Of course, I wasn't doing what he wanted, so he got pissed off and started yelling. So, I started doing something else. We went back and forth until he got tired. Who knows where that could have escalated.
Long story short, I feel safer in countries where I speak a little of the language.
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