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cards for emergency translation

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

When I went to Shanghai, I knew that I'd be buying food in places where people don't speak English or Japanese. And yet I have food allergies.

I solved this problem by asking a Chinese-speaking friend to provide a translation of two sentences:

"I cannot eat milk products or wheat."

and

"Does this contain milk products or wheat?"

I then printed a small card with the translated sentences and had that laminated. It did the trick: I presented it everywhere and was warned off of some foods that I'd guessed would be okay.

Turns out that there's a company that provides such laminated cards in various languages. Chinese, Hungarian, Japanese... if you're lactose intolerant or diabetic, check them out.