The language barrier is the biggest and most daunting thing ahead of anyone studying abroad.  This is true for myself as well.  We my roommates and I live next to a gyro place.  It's great but for the first few week you just asked for one gyro and they'd realize you couldn't speak Greek so they'd assume you wanted everything on it.  Needless to say, you learn how to deal with what you're given.  
Now that the wall is gone or at least a little broken down, I can communicate what I want.  But I became much more accepting of what I'm given in the event of a misunderstanding.