It must be pretty much only an NA/EU problem, because I have never run into a JP who was upset that I did not speak their language. Matter of fact, they were always more forgiving and patient and helpful to non-speakers. If someone is offended that you are checking their language and don't speak it, I think that is a problem of themselves, and not you.
Anyways, this is mostly useful when you are doing speed runs of CM, or Garuda HM over and over again. As a DPS, I went from waiting 3 hours in-between Garuda runs during primetime, to only waiting 15-20 minutes. That is a tremendous improvement. If people are upset at me for deciding not to waste 2.5 hours of my time simply because I don't speak their language, well, that's their problem. My time is my time, and we get along just fine with a translator - in-game auto-translator, or Google. The JP's are great. Maybe you should consider switching to a JP server if you're having so much trouble with people over language? The only time I seem to have trouble with the translator is when I'm trying to /shout to form groups.
P.S. Most JP's I've run into with these groups were actually surprised at how good Google Translate is. But truth be told, as long as the statements/questions are simple and not wordy, it's not hard to get a good translation.
P.P.S: If your complaint is about being sociable with others in the game, not being able to fluently speak their language is hardly a barrier to being social. Their are plenty of universal keystrokes (smilies, for instance), which are friendly. Plenty of universal words which are friendly and social. And lastly, the built-in Auto-translator has TONS of phrases, questions, words, etc which are purely social in context, and make for a very friendly experience when nobody speaks each other's language. I recommend looking into everything you can say with the Auto-translator. If that doesn't satisfy you, make a bunch with Google Translate, and keep them in a text file so you can alt-tab to cut-and-paste, or just keep Google Translate open at all times. I'm constantly cut-and-pasting the entire chat box to see what folks or saying in Japanese, so I can then respond and be social with them, too.