Hey,
I made a previous post about how to approach when there is a language barrier. My particular situation is that I'm living in (not travelling through) a country where I don't speak the language, so the usual one of saying 'I'm trying to find X can you help?' wouldn't really work.

Anyway, when doing some food shopping, how about this...

"Hey excuse me, do you speak English?"
"Um, yes!"
"Great, I need a bit of advice. My SPAM is sick and I want to make her some soup, but I can't read these packets. Can you tell me which of these would be best?"

Or whatever. I now it's very specific to one situation, ie seeing a HB when you're shopping for food, but I thought it was a nice opener.

What dyou think? And how could I move it from there?

Thanks!

Your screwed, if they say... "Uhm, no"

Even if it does work, I am a little worried, about how will you follow up on such on innocent question, how will go from my roommate is sick to I like you we should hang out... in a smooth way?

Dude, I think you are making this way more difficult than it has to be. I've hooked up with girls that spoke no english at all, (admittedly I did have a translator to introduce us).

You are in a country where you don't speak the language, so DON'T worry about what to say. When I was traveling in China, I was more relaxed because it didn't matter what I said because even if I did say the wrong thing, it didn't matter because no one understood me anyway.

If they don't speak your language, you have to rely on kino and body language.

There is no magical pill.

Just be confident, relax and have fun. After all, in this country YOU are the exotic one, You are the prize.

Just curious which country are you in? I will be traveling back into China, and SE Asia again this winter.