Travel Tips: How to deal with the language barrier when you travel

I have wanted to post something on over-coming language barriers when you travel for a long time.

Obviously, if you speak English and stick to the 'touristy' area of travel.. it is rare that nobody could understand you at all.. also if you have WIFI and a decent programme for translation.. it may not be perfect but it will get you going... but if you are off the beaten path.. this gets tricky.. but not impossible and most of all- NEVER LET IT STOP YOU!!

1. Sticking to the tourist areas

Japan... did I tell you I love Japan? I am consistently feeding myself with a staple of anime and manga (don't judge, a creative adult is a child who survived!) and knew this was a place I wanted to visit. My first trip was in 2005 then 2012, 2013, 2014 - yes, it is that good. During my first trip, I did everything a tourist would do.. I visited Tokyo and Kyoto and took a tour to Mt Fuji and Hakone (all in English of course), we ask for where to eat at the hotels and rest of the time pointed at menus with pictures.. or those realistic food display on the window... uurrgghh I can't find a picture.. but it is a window display of the menu and price and you can't go wrong (unless if you want to know if it is beef or pork... or.?)... Train stops had both Japanese and English signs and the tourist map was clear enough for first-timers to find their way...

Hotel staff are especially 'useful'/helpful, they would speak English and would more likely recommend you a place that speaks English and can help guide you on the public transportations system.. I didn't particularly feel that language was a barrier... save for the time I couldn't find the flush button on one of those fancy Japanese toilets (it was concealed on the wall ಠ_ರೃ).

There is always a way to get around... if you like to be adventurous but not too adventurous, just stick to the main tourist areas.. and they are the main tourist area for a reason - it would be still 'exotic' enough until you are ready for more...

somehow.. my friend and I managed to book a day trip with
Japanese Rail to Atami, a hot spring village which included
access to the hot spring and a delicious lunch... (May 2005)

What has difficult is to buy a 'charm' from the temples
though.. many had no clear sign what they are for..
I also found out that for some odd reason the charm
for easy child birth is much more expensive
than the rest.. (May 2005)

2. Prepare yourself.. do your homework..

In my later trips,  I grew older and bolder.. Fred and I started venturing to areas with much less international tourist.. and things started to in a sense harder... but at the same time.. it gives fun and excitement to the trip.

We both eat just about everything save for insects and protected animals- so it is not difficult when it comes to food. Usually we do some research on regional speciality and check for famous place to eat it and usually cross check it with the hotels... sometimes you can get let down foreign guidebooks/review sites doing a review of another foreign cuisine.. sometimes it is just hype aimed at the tourist. When you have things in mind, print out the dish or the name of the restaurant or both.. just show it to reception and ask them to mark it on the map or you or even help you make a reservation.. or ask if they know a even better place to go, no harm in asking!

Same thing goes for places you want to visit, print them out or save them on your phone/tablet (to be more environmentally friendly) and ask the people you are staying with.

3. So you are fussy...

More and more people have allergies or due to other dietary reasons avoid some type of food. I always advise my friends to print out a list or a small flash card that list the most basic food type and useful phrases in the local languages. With the internet, this is incredibly easy. Avoid the pleasantries (you will pick them up as you go along) and you don't want to start compiling a dictionary.. just really  basic words you will need:

Yes, No

Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Fish, Prawns 

Nuts, Seafoo, Allergy

Hospital, Toilet 

Taxi, Train

Name and address of hotel

Everything in the local language and your language that applies to you - you might have a good memory but poor pronunciation... so unless you can say them correctly.. have them in writting. When in doubt, just point.

Or just get international roaming/WIFI or an app that works offline... we are usually too cheap to do it.. so we continue with our silly adventures.. 

Here is a funny story, Jayce and I were invited by some fancy friends to attend some horse auction and race in Australia in 2011.We took days off and booked our flight into Brisbane.. only just a couple of days before the flood shut off the roads out of the airport..  there wasn't much sense to go to stay at the airport... so we ended up having the money for the air tickets back but it goes into a fund which allow us to use the money to buy another ticket with the same airline (of course).. as Jayce had already taken her days off, she has adamant that we go somewhere.. with little time to plan, we needed somewhere relative close and with no visa required, she choose KOREA.. (eh?) I was working in Germany at that time and came back with only summer little summer dresses to frolic around Queensland and was looking to escape the cold.. but we went anyways and it was an adventure... nothing was planned saved for the first night of hotel.. we knew nothing outside of her knowledge of Korean gained from Korean dramas.. It was a fun but funny trip.

We visited Seoul and Gyeongju. The average guy on the street can't speak English in Korean- and we spoke 2 words of Korean so hilarity ensues. Just to randomly tell a (there are more) story of how we survive a the language barrier by chance..

We ate in a couple of touristy places in Seoul and they had English menus or menu with pictures, so we wanted an authentic experience of having Japanese BBQ on charcoal.. not a fancy place but a wholesome local hangout... so we asked the guy at the hotel and explicitly said this. He gave us 2 addresses close by in case one way close and it was both in the back alleys of some street... We went into one and everything looks great.. locals on the floor.. charcoal grill.. wonderful.. then we tried to order... the staff spoke no word of English!! None.. Jayce doesn't really like beef and lamb but will usually humour me but we will get a pork or chicken dish too so she doesn't starve...

As the menu was all in Korean, we resorted to sign language.. hands on the head like horns and went 'moo'... Beef? Moo.. we could then understood a nod or a shake to say no.. as we were continuing our stand-up comic, Jayce and I were discussing that maybe we just randomly point at something and just take it.. then a helpful staff that heard us speak in Mandarin walked to us and started speaking to us in Mandarin!! We were saved.. everything else went really after that and we got by with with Mandarin.. So here is what we had (part of it):

delicious Korean charcoal grill.. yum (Jan 2011)

And with our point and wait to find out strategy- just point to the most expensive (but still reasonably priced) item on the menu.. we got this at Gyeongju :

Namsan was worth the climb
(Jan 2011)

Just to end Korea with another funny story, Jayce read that Namsan is a must see spot..'you have not seen Gyeongju if you have not seen Namsan' she said the brochure (only in Korean or Chinese) wrote. The park ranger was a friendly old guy who spoke very little but some English.. we want to know how long the trek will take to see if we could make it... I think he said something like an hour (we think) but at the end it took us 3 hours (up only).. with many pit stops to take pictures and really slippery slops because of the snow... to go up and a bit faster to descend... we ended up spending the day at Namsan.. We are still not sure if we understood him wrongly or we were just really slow.. but plenty of senior citizens were trekking and floating by us.. so, we may not be the fittest one around and most people can make it up in 1 hour.

Would some translation be helpful for us at any of these points.. of course! Less traumatic.. but perhaps less memorable? Good news is though.. recent friends who went to Korea said that information in English is much more readily available now.

I couldn't find my pictures for Korea so I pinched all these
from Jayce's facebook (Jan 2011)

and now for some helpful tips...

Takumi - Ramen Restaurant

Immermannstr. 28
40210 Düsseldorf

http://brickny.com/takumi/  

I like this place. I call this a Ramen restaurant because they predominant serve Ramen - A Japanese soup noodle dish. You get some other stuff like gyoza or some teriyaki dish. You can check out their website for the menu: http://brickny.com/takumi/  

The Ramen is pretty decent and it has rather authentic feel to it, the small cramped interiors, the Japanese staff, plus load of Asian faces easting there. Unless you go off 'normal eating hours'. We were there at 3pm the other day, the restaurant can be kinna full.. and I think they don't take reservations.

 

Lunch has good deals (if you are hungry) to get 2 dishes for what is usually the price of one plus maybe 20%-ish.  But overall, you can eat below EUR 10 and have free flow of tea. Otherwise you can always order Japanese beer to quench your thirst.  

How do I find this place as compared to what I have tried in Japan? I find it a bit saltier.. but could be in my mind... and a more liberal use of mayonnaise.. I had it in my teriyaki chicken with rice.. taste good but I think this is kinna unusual.

Otherwise, if you are looking for a casual place to go for a nice Japanese bowl of ramen at a warm, friendly atmosphere. Do try this one.

"Ugly fish"

Hi, Siew Fong here, with my first post written from Tokyo, eating la vida loca (haha). Nice to meet you all and looking forward to sharing fun stuff here.

For my first post.... tadaaaa... i present to you.... Ugly Fish!!!! No, this is not the official name for this traditional Tokyo delicacy which has delighted Tokyoites since the Edo period.

My colleagues and I went to a famous restaurant in Asakusa, Iida-ya(どぜう飯田屋) which specializes in anything ugly fish related, as this dish is believed to be best eaten in summer and is extremely nutritious during this season. Ugly Fish stars the Dojo Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), a freshwater fish that live in paddy fields and wetlands all across Japan. The Dojo loach has also been made famous by the previous Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Noda who likened himself to this bottom-feeding, humble species. Try googling it, and you will see his face plastered all over your screen.

It was not easy to be excited about this dish, as no matter how they tried to decorate and beautify the plate, they still consisted of scrawny black little things. When fried, these flavour-less fishies pick up the salty taste of the batter, and the earthy taste of fried burdock root shavings. I love anything fried and salty, and this is not an exception.

When uncooked though, Ugly Fish is covered in a slimy film, which is said to help them live a little longer even out of water. Resilient little things, these guys! The freshest heroes are served in all their naked glory, their greyish, at times bluish naked glory, a la "hot pot" style. One of the highlights of serving it this way is for one of us to gross out a newbie to this dish, squiggling them fishes to feign life. Of course after a while, it gets stale. Covered with dashi stock, the fire was turned up, and the fishes made their inevitable jumps along with the gurgling stock.

The Ugly Fishes soon lost the twinkle in their eyes, the glisten of their skin. Death descended, and Death became. We enshrouded them with a blanket of thinly-sliced green onions, a yin and yang of flavours. The Dojo nabe (どぜう鍋), as this style is called, was then served sprinkled with Japanese shichimi powder (chili and mixed spice) and a kind of Japanese pepper called Sanshou (山椒). The fishes are to be eaten whole, head, body, bones. Chewing on their softened bones can be a challenge for the uninitiated, and one has to take care not to rush too much and choke. The perk? Calcium.

They are actually pretty good, really, once you deal with your initial reluctance and suspicion. At least, do it for the sake of seasonal traditions, and the experience is well worth it, especially when accompanied by some good warm sake...

Check out Iida-ya's homepage & menu