A non-Japanese-speaking friend of mine was telling me a story of how he once tried to talk his way onto a dinner cruise, even though he knew all the seats were booked. Persistence, he figured, plus his clumsiness with the language would work its "gaijin" spell on the English-burdened clerk, who he just knew would eventually relent and find one more place setting.
Yet the clerk would not budge and soon both men became hot under the collar.
"So I had no choice," my friend reported, "but to resort to the international language."