That's the crux of how I strive to be in general. There's a lot of times where I'll often notice (often) an older person with a confused look on their face grasping their ticket in the terminal, and despite how easy air travel is to those of us that do it a lot, it just doesn't feel right walking away without taking that two seconds to go "Hey, can I help you find something?." You talked about a similar thing with learning the language where you're at. In the last few years I've had at least a dozen people apparently decide "hey, I bet that dorky looking white guy speaks Spanish" and come up to me asking where their gate is 100% in Spanish. It always feels crappy not being able to help someone, so I've at least tried to learn the basics of trying to point them in the right direction.
Yeah, this is one of the things I've spent a lot of time doing over the last few years, learning Spanish. Both because of travel to Spanish Speaking countries, but also, because things are changing and being able to communicate with people is important. I shouldn't expect everyone to just be able to understand me when I start talking in English and when I can I have an ethical obligation to help people.
If I got fired or reprimanded for "helping out in the wrong way" or otherwise got in trouble for trying to do right by people I would feel ok with it. That's their loss not mine. The fear of potential punishment shouldn't stop you from doing what you think is right. If I were to get fired for helping an old lady or fired for helping helping loading bags or something, I feel like that wouldn't be a place I'd want to work at in the first place. Obviously it's not black and white, but just try to do right by people - they're trusting you with their lives, you can go a little bit above and beyond, it won't hurt.
Long ago, I transported a village elder who died in our parking lot (more context and comedy related to this tragic event available over beers) back home. It was one of the greatest honors of my life to be specifically asked by his family a few days later to fly out the priest and subsequently asked to help carry the casket around the village and then bury him during the service before I flew the priest back. I didn't have to do any of that. Hell, I came in on my day off to do it. It was a lot of • work too - do you know heavy a casket is and how hard it is to dig a hole?! I was under no obligation to do any of that. But it was the right thing to do, it helped that family feel better and they told me, "thank you for bringing him home." That was worth it. If my boss would have gotten mad because I took too long to get back (he didn't if memory serves I was the only flight on the books and I was standing by to bring the priest back to town) I would have said, "look, this was the right thing to do, so I did it." I can't see a universe in which I care if I were to be punished for that.
Just do the right thing - you already know what it is. That same voice that says, "just go missed, what are you pushing so hard for?" that's the same voice that says, "hey, that old lady needs help, why don't you offer?"
