Getting a little ahead of myself

Unfortunately my language studies aren't coming along quite fast enough.
Yesterday I was working at the hospital and one of my patients was an old Italian lady. I came into her room, "Buongiorno!"
"Buongiorno, bella." she greeted me.
"I havva day peells for you." I said to her in my best Italian accent.
"How many of them?" She asked (actually she asked in Italian but I don't remember how to say it.)
"Quattro," I answered.
I fed them to her one by one, interspersed with a few words I did know: "Adesso ... (now....), Bene! (good!), Aspetto (wait), Mille Grazie (thank you very much)" and a few other words I made up that sounded Italian and she seemed to understand, like "d'agua" (water), and "One-ah more-ah peella".
When I left I said "Buona notte" and she kissed my hand and said "buona fortuna" (good luck). I wondered why she was wishing me good luck, was it an omen of things to come?
Today I was walking down the street and a young man stopped me to ask directions, map in hand. His command of English was limited and I guessed at his nationality and put on my best Spanish accent, just like the sultry Mexican girl in "The three amigos."
"Where do you come from?"
"Mexico." He answered.
"Ah, Mexico! Habla espanol?"
"Si! Si!"
"Yo tambien." I said confidently (me too), and then suddenly my mind blanked and I couldn't really remember any more Spanish. (Hey, I haven't spoken it since high school.)
He began to speak excitedly in Spanish and I finally understood that he was asking where I had learned spanish from.
"Mi madre habla espanol", I answered, and then lapsing into spanglish, "I leerned eet from her. I no speak bien, but eef you speak, I understand."
My brother and I gave him directions to where he was going, and as he left I waved goodbye and I said "Ciao!" and Austin said "Hola!"
We looked at each other and laughed. Whatever was missing in our grasp of the language we could make up for in heart.
That's kind of my philosophy when it comes to speaking a foreign language. If you just jump in with both feet ("Of course I speak German!"), put on your best fake accent and make all your English sound a little German or French or whatever, use your arms a lot, nine times out of ten you'll be understood. And if you're not understood, at least people will have a good laugh.
Maybe that's why my old Italian patient wished me good luck.