I had a roommate in college one year who didn't speak English, like, at all. She was part of an exchange program from Japan, and the dorm gods assigned her to my room. We couldn't communicate, other than to use the universal sign language of pointing to ourselves and saying our names when we met.

She smoked in the room, which was not only not allowed, but it irritated my sinuses. With no way to ask her to not smoke in the room, I tried opening the window and coughing loudly, but she didn't seem to get it. I eventually left a note on her bed that she apparently got someone to translate for her, as she didn't smoke in the room anymore after that.

Another time, I woke up one morning to find her in her bed with three Japanese exchange student guys. None of them, including her, were there when I went to bed, and I'm a deep sleeper, so God knows what they were doing when I was sleeping. But, waking up to a room full of strange guys who don't speak your language is awkward.

I was at home for the weekend when her exchange program ended and she moved out, and she broke my lamp when she moved. In a nice gesture, there was a brand new lamp for me when I got back to the dorm, along with some flowers, and a note someone wrote for her in English saying she was sorry for the lamp, and sorry she didn't get a chance to say goodbye, and the flowers were her gift to me for being such a good roommate. So, she wasn't all bad. :)