I understand that the character is only supposed to know his language, and no other. It probably is the case of an overwhelming majority of English-speaking players (tell me if I'm wrong). And as for players speaking languages other than English they probably all have a passive if not working knowledge of English, as everyone surfing a lot the Internet inevitably gains (I might be wrong here again but that's not crucial to the discussion). So it's just the real life situation that's reflected into the game: we can't expect an English player to know any other language that he's likely to come across in exchanges with other language communities. So the other language communities, when meeting with English-speaking folk, should pretend not to know English. I also understand that the idea is (I think I read that in the thread Languages, I'm not sure though) that people can try to communicate by signs, and try to teach each other basic vocabulary, names for ressources. But here's my question: what is this supposed to lead to? I mean, you won't learn Dutch or Polish that way. Are these exchanges doomed to be done through simplistic signing and basic juxtapositions of words? (Maybe commercial pidgins would arise, but I think this is more fantasizing than thinking of a real way to deal with the matter.)
In the end I think that the matter of language is too complicated and to dependent on OOC world to be entirely dealt with IC. I think I would be for people using their knowledge of any other language they have OOC, IC, and for people using a dictionary or something to help them make heads or tails of map written in German or Dutch. Of course this has the disadvantage of giving an advantage (whoa) to those with a previous knowledge of other languages, but hey, doesn't everyone come and play IC with some advantages and disadvantages when compared with other players. (I'm saying this almost in bad faith, because I'm thinking of maybe 'role-playing superiority' or knowledge of some political or economical concepts that can give an advantage, though I don't know how well it holds the comparison with the issue of languages.)
There's a second point I would like to address. I think it happens fairly often in non-English regions to find English in notes (excerpts from the event logs for example) and even in dialogues when we can't think of the proper word for some items and such, though I only have the experience of the French region to back me up. How should we deal with that? One can translate the events log excerpt, but still, that's a lot of work. And how can it be that if I come across 'bone knife' in a note or in chatting with another French Cantrian I recognize it, but if I hear it from an English-speaking traveler, I should not know the word, because it's English and I'm not supposed to know English.
Maybe I have forgotten to say something but my post is lengthy enough to put people like me off and make them not read it so I'll stop here and wait impatiently to see what you have to say. Please answer! It's so lame when a newcomer posts something and the thread doesn't get a reply in a week.
I've seen that on forums though I can't say I've seen it here. 
That is pretty much the standard answer that has been determined through discussion on the forums. You have to pretend that your character at first understands only the language you signed up to play in. H can try to learn any languages he encounters after that, but roleplay the learning process. That is half the fun of it, really.
