At long last, hopefully.

Well, Nick got in touch with the landlady last Friday, and she said that she would contact an aircon repairman - and in case we never heard from him, she gave us his name and number. Half a day went by and, since not having aircon is kind of an emergency, Nick tried calling him. Didn't get through. Kept trying all weekend, and finally, yesterday afternoon, got through. 

It turned out that this guy doesn't speak much English either, but somehow he and Nick were able to communicate what is going on (he hadn't heard from our landlady) and he is now scheduled to look at our aircon this afternoon. I hope it works out!