I agree with the comments saying people should learn some of the language of the country they're in, but this is about an emergency situation where people could lose lives, not merely an inconvenience where they can't eat for a day or they lose their jewelry. Yes, I think it's stupid not to learn anything of other languages, but I don't think it's a level of stupidity punishable by death.

I personally love the idea of pictographic symbols being used worldwide, a sort of rudimentary universal language that everyone can understand. It's a great way to spread basic information to everyone without worrying about the dominance of one language over another.