Though all this quickly becomes expensive, straying from Djanet without a guide and a good vehicle would be foolish. Language is not a great obstacle. French is widely spoken, along with Arabic and Tamachek, the Berber dialect of the Tuaregs. English is less common, because American and British visitors are rare. But visitors talk too much anyway, and expect too much of their guides.
Local people know less than they pretend to.
In Algeria at least they don't require you to ski the dunes and they don't name the rocks. After a morning's drive south from Djanet you come to a desert of scattered acacias, and to a canyon and a spring where nomads camp. The women may slip into their tents. The men may make tea, and sit with you for hours in silence and the buzzing of flies. The goats will bleat.