could you live somewhere for a long time and never know the language?

In Snow, Pamuk's main character, Ka, has come back from living in Frankfurt for something like 10 years, and he tells everyone in the Turkish city that he visits, Kars, that he never spoke to any Germans, and lived in almost complete solitude for all those years. The only people he spoke to were other Turks. Is that possible? It depends if there was a large, possibly self-contained Turkish community in Frankfurt. Will there be communities of English speakers where I go? I would think there would have to be, with English being such a common language now. Interesting to think about...