Don’t Speak the Language? Carry It With You
Yes, more free stuff, read on for more….
This summer, when I was living in Madrid, my husband contracted Mumps. An unusual affliction, and before we knew what it could be, we were both panicked at what the softball sized lumps on his jaw could be. We both spoke a little Spanish, enough to do almost everything we needed in daily life. This wasn’t daily life. Suddenly I was presented with medical vocabulary I had never heard or studied before. What’s the word for swollen? Or allergies? Or insurance card?
At almost the same time, Pocket Comms were created.
They are a series of cards that use cartoon pictures to represent common things: including medical emergencies.
The great thing about these cards? They work. The UK police department has been testing them out with citizens who don’t speak English. Normally, they’d have to wait for an interpreter, while the suspect got away. With these cards, they can flip to card and have the victim point to things like: what happened and what the suspect looked like.
If you’re traveling and don’t speak the language, you can probably get by. But, I know for my husband’s medical emergency, having a way to communicate would have been extrememly helpful.
What do you think? Would you use these cards? Well here’s your chance to find out. The folks at Pocket Comms have very generously offered a free Pocket Comms to one of our readers. Comment to enter and next week, we’ll pick a winner!
11 Comments
These cards are potentially very useful. They look to be easy and fast to use. I got sick in France last May. I wish I’d had these cards.
This would be a great tool. My grunting and pointing would be much more effective with something like this to grunt and point at.
It’s a great idea! I’ve been on a few trips where I had to actually draw pictures to communicate. This would be a fantastic tool.
I’m glad I read this. These cards would be so useful to have when traveling in a country where I don’t know the language.
I’ll never forget watching a friend (who speaks very basic Spanish) trying to make an Italian hospital staffer understand (in said basic Spanish) what was wrong with our unilingual Australian hostel-mate. A whole host of Italians in the waiting room tried to help us answer the question, “How do you say dehydration and diarrhoea in Italian??”
Cards would have come in handy. That being said, not sure I’d want to see the pictures for some of these things!
I was just thinking about getting a visual dictionary for a trip I’m planning next year. These cards seem like they would fit the bill perfectly.
I think that this is an outstanding idea for sure. I know that when we visited Tokyo we could have used these several times in the subway. I think you are on to something here…
Great Idea – I live in a foreign country and even though I can communicate pretty much everything fine, medical emergencies are one of nightmares in the back of my mind if it shall happen to me.
Could be great for people who can’t speak for medical or defect reasons.
For me? I think I rather use our GPS with dictionary in it
Wow that’s really awesome! Do people ever feel weird using the cards since they might seem a bit childish?
I could have really used this when I went to Berlin. I learned a few words but these cards would have made it easier. Next July I am going to Switzerland and I will be taking those cards with me.