Iconspeak- the t-shirt that 'speaks' in all languages

Travelling can be lots of fun, but sometimes, language becomes a barrier.

Imagine being in desperate need of help, but don't know how to communicate that with people in a foreign country that you are visiting?

The same thing happened to owners of a company called Iconspeak, who have now come up with a brilliant idea of a t-shirt that 'speaks' all languages.

The owners created a t-shirt that comes printed with 40 icons that travelers can use to try to get their message across if they don't know the language.

"We came up with the idea in 2013 when we were riding motorbikes through Vietnam and one broke down," co-founder George Horn told CNN.

Horn says that after a struggle to get help in a place where no one understood French or English, they found themselves using symbols to communicate, and fortunately got help.

This prompted the idea of the t-shirt with the symbols.

"It was a long process. We started with a huge list of possible items and began testing a lot of prototypes," Horn added.

He went on to say that the t-shirt has proven successful and has been tested in Europe and Latin American.

It is sold online for about R471.