Try feign no English again.

The thug looks intensely irritated. "Hey, what's he saying?" he shouts over your shoulder.

"Urr, I don't speak no foreign," answers a voice. Glancing back, you see a second brute who shops at the same outsize knife emporium as the first.

The larger man takes you by the hair. "You wanna speak English, or do we beat you senseless?"

You can:

Say, "I do apologise, what can I do for you?".

Try to fight your way past the hood in front.

Smile, shrug, shake your head, and repeat yet more foreign phrases you remember from the opera.

Suddenly scream for help at the top of your voice.