is it possible to visit a country without basic knowledge of the language used there ?

I went to italy this month when i had 0 knowledge in italien, people told me that i can get by just by speaking english. but once i was there i found it hard sometimes to ask about directions and stuff, i regreted not learning at least some basic italien before traveling.

 

i'm going to south korea next summer, so i thought about studying korean starting now. What do you think?