Not fluent, but I speak a little, read more, and this wasn't that hard. "Mein Deutsch ist shreklich. Sprechen sie Englisch? Nein? Franzosisch?" was probably the phrase I used most when I was in Munich. Combine that with "was costas das?", "Zwei bieren, bitte", "wo ist der Waschraum", and "Entschuldigung, ich bin Canadian." and you've covered most of my conversational German.

But simple German, especially written? I can usually read that.