eli5 how early explorers figured out talking to people of new country/land that they discovered

Question

So if they discovered a new country, firstly how did they communicate with natives living there and even if they figured that out how did they learn and understand their langauge when there was no person that could create a translation document between both languages since no one would know both the languages at that point. I know I might be asking a very obvious question, but its been bugging mind since evening. Thanks in advance.

In: Other

Answer 1

Gesture at things and pick up odd words like water, food, fire etc. Once you spend time with a group and listen a lot you can pick up a lot of words and eventually get your intentions across.