Pocketcomms travel communication aid – Review and Giveaway
March 11, 2009 by HeatherCowper
If you’re going off the beaten track where English isn’t widely spoken, travelling through multiple countries or just worried that your language skills aren’t up to it, then you’ll be interested in hearing about the Pocketcomms global communicator. Read on and find out how you can get a free Pocketcomms to test out on your travels – I have three to give away.
I met James Wyatt, the inventor of Pocketcomms at the Travel Blogger’s camp in London in November 08, and he explained how he’d come up with the idea. As an army reservist in the British Territorial Army, James had found himself in Afghanistan, trying to communicate with local children. Drawing on years of experience as an artist and cartoonist, he found that drawing a picture was a quick way to communicate and so the idea of Pocketcomms was born.
Pocketcomms is a neat set of laminated picture cards, which fan out to show pictures of everyday objects including food and drink, transport, parts of the body, accomodation and a map of the world. You can use it to ask directions, explain an illness, order a meal or talk about your hobbies.
I must admit that initially I was sceptical about Pocketcomms, thinking about my recent travels to Rome and Valencia where everyone working in the hotels and tourist attractions I visited spoke good English. Anyhow, surely it would be polite to learn at least a few words of any language in a country you’re visiting – I had attended evening classes in Spanish before my trip to Ecuador.
But then I thought about the rural villages in India I’d visited where 99% where the locals were very poor and didn’t speak any English, and there aren’t too many evening classes in Telugu, the local language. Being realistic, there are parts of the world where the local language is so unfamiliar that in a short stay it’s difficult to grasp much more than Please and Thank you, so if your car breaks down or you fall ill you could find yourself in a tricky situation.
So I gave my Pocketcomms sample to my friend Joanne who was off on her trip to Peru and she came back raving about how useful it had been. Although she considered herself a profficent Spanish speaker, once she got out of the cities she found that local accents and indigenous languages made it difficult to converse with the locals. When she found herself in the local hardware store trying to buy a bath plug, Pocketcomms came to the rescue and she was able to find what she needed (and get a hot bath).
Then she met Margariette, a little girl selling wrapping paper in Lima, and Joanne managed to find out all about her life using the pictures in the Pocketcomms guide. In fact Joanne, was so impressed that on her return, she gave the Pocketcomms to her daughter who was just about to travel to India, as well as buying several more to give to other people she knew who were just off on their gap year travels.
Now Joanne’s daughter Jessica has been doing voluntary work in an orphanage in India with a friend and found the Pocketcomms was a fun and handy way of communicating with the children there. While travelling through India she used it again for finding her way to the train station, and when they got a tummy bug, the most well-thumbed page was the one with a picture of a toilet.
If you check out the Pocketcomms website you can find photos and testimonials from others who found it useful. I love this one of Jim’s wife Kaye haggling over how many camels she could get for her husband.
So if you have a trip coming up where you think a Pocketcomms would come in handy, I have THREE to give away to readers. All you need to do is post a comment, ideally about how you’d use the Pocketcomms, or any interesting travel situations you’ve come across where it would have come in handy. At the end of March 09 I’ll draw three of the comments at random and send the winners a Pocketcomms. If you can’t wait that long, or you miss the boat, then you can buy the Pocketcomms directly from the website for £7.99. It could also be the ideal parting gift for someone who’s just about to set off on their gap year travels or round the world trip.
Happy Travels!
P.S. No money changed hands in the making of this blog post (only three Pocketcomms)
Related Posts
Meeting Margariette in Lima
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Mara on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 12:55 am
I wouldn’t want to take one of these from someone else who will be traveling soon, since all my upcoming travel is domestic. But what a fantastic idea! I think especially if you are traveling with kids. My children are both really social and I know it cramped their style a bit in Paris that they couldn’t just chat with kids they met at the playground.
Very ingenious.
previously.bitten on Thu, 12th Mar 2009 3:53 pm
you know – I think there’s value to these pocketcomms. And yet at the same time, I think they could be setting someone up to fail. You point at a picture of your luggage, but you can’t communicate anything more about it. Do you want it? Did you lose it? Are you just excited to have it? Where do those details come in?
And some pictures are confusing – such as the kettle pouring boiling water onto an arm. If you point to that – are you saying you were burned? Or are you requesting it? And with no way to further communicate…
Personally, I travel with a notebook that I can make crude drawings in when necessary. And the fact that these images are so close together leads me to fear you might point at one, while the other is assumed.
Since there’s no way to talk it out and clairify – terrible things might happen.
Mark @ Travel Wonders on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 12:16 am
What a simple but super idea. And your correct – it would be seriously useful in Asia, Africa and parts of South America where local languages just cannot be picked up or learned in a timely manner. Added to hand gestures and you should be able to get most messages across. Impressive idea and yet so simple.
Katey on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 7:15 pm
I think these are a great idea – I’ve seen a similar thing before which was a book filled with pictures, although I’ve never got round to buying one. My husband and I are saving for our next big trip at the moment and I could see something like this being really useful.
I’ve certainly had to resort to sign language before, as even though I thought I was saying something right I still wasn’t able to make myself understood.
One early morning in Thailand we were looking for the train station. My (now) husband assured me he knew how to get there, but as I discovered, him knowing how to get there and us actually getting there were two different things. I approached a man nearby with a confident “sa-wa dee kah” resulting in a face splitting smile, which immediately faded when I continued with “Can you tell us how to get to the train station please” in English. I used my guide book to try and say train station in Thai but he looked blank. I pointed at the map and he looked confused. I made a loud choo-choo noise and moved my arms like pistons and the smile was back. He laughed and continued to mimic me all the way to the train station (coincidently only a few minutes away). He probably spoke English and just wanted to see my great train impression, but a picture of a train sure would have come in handy.
admin on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 10:48 pm
Katey – what a great story – you sure could have done with that Pocketcomms!
Previously Bitten – I do hope no-one would pour boiling water on your arm! but some useful feedback for James. He started the pocketcomms just because he started off with a notebook & pen like you but took it one step further.
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