Translation Cards

Last summer, my in-laws visited us. It
was their first trip to USA. There was a problem. They don’t speak
English at all, but they have communicate with air hostess to get
their Muslim meal. They also have to check in their luggages in
Chicago airport for their connect flight. What can we do? We got an
idea. We prepared translation cards for them. Each card has Uyghur
and English translation of the basic needs like “Water please”,
or “ Where is the restroom” kind of stuff. At first place, I did
not think the cards do much help. But it turned out that they used
those cards very well. During the 14-hour flight from Beijing to
Chicago, they showed a card to the air hostess: “My son has ordered
Muslim meal for us. If you do not have Muslim meal, Please serve
vegetarian meal for us, Please”. My father-in-law said the girl
smiled and went to the back of plane. But she came back and asked
something, which I would never know. Then my father-in-law showed the
girl a card says: “Sorry. We don’t speak English”. That was fun.
The girl shrugged and laughed really hard. Few minutes later, she
brought them the Muslim meal I have ordered. Using those magic
translation cards, they bought waters in Chicago airport, changed
coins to call us using public phones and even had a conversation with
airport staff.

Next month, my parents are coming to
visit us. I pulled up those cards again. Hope those cards work for
the purpose this time too. I have read a story. It says a German with
German-English Dictionary had very good conversation with a Russian,
who has a Russian-English Dictionary, just showing the dictionary to
each other. When I read it, I had a doubt about the conversation. But
now, I really believe it. I have never imagined a communication is
that easy even without speaking the language.