Discussion: My attempts to explain in slurred Chinese, mixed with pantomime were often accompanied by great laughter, but it is not funny to communicate in Chinese when you are sick and in pain.

Communication in English in China is very challenging; most people, including doctors, are not fluent in English. Chinese is unlike any language I know! And my knowledge of Chinese was absolutely zero. Communication in the early years was conducted only with an interpreter. Today, I can get by with only fundamental issues. There's no way I'll ever know how to read and write in Chinese. It's hard to explain in Chinese that you have a giant cockroach in the room. Until I finally had to draw a cockroach.