Languages/Translations - Medical Conditions

[sueknice]

Hi all. My fiance and I are doing a Mediterain Cruise in November. He is highly allergic to shellfish. It had been suggested that I might want to have a card or paper that said this in each language with us whenever we ate. We would still discuss it with the waitstaff, but more as a extra insurance. (Example was they could say the dish doesn't have fish, not thinking they serve their pasta with a clam sauce)

 

Has anyone done this? Does anyone know the translations? Those with allergies, how have you handled this?

 

I would assume with the interinary below - these are the languages I would need: Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Turkish

 

Rome, Sorrento/Capri Italy Alexandra, Port Said (Cairo/Giza) Egypt

Jerulalem(Ashold), Nazeth/Galilee (Haifa) Israel Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey

Patmos, Santorini, Athens Greece

 

Am I just being overly worried or is this something I should look into? (We are staying 2 days pre cruise in Rome, and one day in Athens, most ports we will be doing excursions from the cruiseline)

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Suzanne

 

PS - He is also a type-1 Diabetic. Should I do the same thing for this? (Although for this he does have a med-alert braclet, and if we need help it is going to be more obvious)

[paul929207]

In Italy, you should find lots of people speaking English.

 

For the other places, do you plan to eat meals off the ship? If you are on a Princess excursion and it includes a meal, check with the excursion desk in advance.

 

As to translations, I can't help you there. Perhaps you could check with a local university, or contact the embassy for the countries you will be visiting.

 

Good Luck.

[smeyer418]

The International Language of Business including the medical profession is.....English. Its highly doubtful that doctors and emergency room personal would not know some English or that someone immediately available won't be able to translate for you. I do think you should be complemented for thinking of having translations with you but in my experience in all these countries it will be unnecessary....

[sueknice]

Thank you both. Someone had made the suggestion on another board of the website. selectwisely dot com. They have translation cards you can buy for both allergies and diabetes. For my own piece of mind, this is what I will be using.

[G.M.T.]

As the alleric reaction, in your case shellfish which is plentiful in the Mediterranean area, could prove fatal, I would not take the chance of other peoples advice or online translator service.

 

The trip wil probabaly costing X $K, so I personally with the help of my allergy MD select a set of questions and possible answers and then get them translated by an offiical translation service (including one that can also cover possible regional dialects i.e. Turkey. Costs a bit, but will be peanuts in comparison to the cruise cost or posible cost of medical help (would the known allergy would xovered ny medical insurance).

 

Whatever have a great cruise.

 

Ron

[oshawa]

Is there not some type of bracelet that can be worn with a medical alert sign that would be recognized by medical professionals world wide. I am certain with some type of hand motion or signals depicting "fish" or the "sea" you could easily alert someone to the problem. I too suffer from allergic reactions to shellfish and have never experienced any problem in alerting someone to this allergy.

 

Good luck!

[sailingkiwi]

I am allergic to fish. What I find more helpful is to learn about certain foods that will be available where I am going so I know what to avoid and what I can eat.

 

I have travelled over most of Europe and also in North Africa and haven't had a problem with this method. Bottom line, if I am not certain of something then I wont order or eat it.

[Tinwoman]

I went to a website called Linguata.com I believe thats what it is called, they have a free download and then you can purchase if you like it. They have tons of languages. I bought the Spanish version and it is fun to use.

[California Native]

I just blogged about this on our personal travel website...

for your convenience here is the link go to 6/4 entry

I think this will help you and your fiancee a great deal

http://when.do.we.leave.googlepages.com

[rsquare]

For at least one country, you need not worry. Most restaurants in Israel are Kosher, and the laws of Kashrut prohibit shellfish. As to translation, I assume that you want this to show a waiter to avoid an incident, not a doctor after the fact. Why not try Google's translator? It will probably come out a bit odd in the target language, but understandable, judging from my experience using it to translate into English.

[mountainmare]

I also am allergic to fish and shellfish. I do carry translated cards to show waiters and they also include (I know this sounds silly) a picture of a fish with a line crossing it out. We have traveled extensively--often to places where seafood is the main food and I have never had a problem.