For anyone who has ever traveled out of the country to another one where a different language is spoken, you know how interesting and also challenging this can be! We’ve traveled extensively in countries where a new language (to us) is the national language, from China to the Czech Republic. But when you travel with a baby, your nerves might be a little higher and when there’s an unexpected scenario, you may have to act differently.

First, some general info based on our experience

Depending on your trip, the language barrier in your vacation destination might not be a huge issue. It’s similar if you traveling on your own and don’t speak the language.

Consider that:

  • Passport control staff will typically always speak English, or foreign travelers will be sent to the officer who speaks English.
  • Most hired drivers (from your resort, or a large hotel) to get to/from the airport will speak some English, and if not, Uber will generally work (but there’s a chance the driver will not know English).
  • For hiring a ride to/from the airports, you can try and book through your hotel or accommodation to ensure that they are expecting to wait a few minutes for you to install your carseat.
  • Most hotel staff will speak English if you stay at a resort or all-inclusive where foreign travelers are the norm.
  • Depending on where you go, a lot of your food service will be English-speaking, especially in “tourist zones” and at resorts.
  • For emergencies, some medical staff may speak English at hospitals.

Far-away places where English is spoken

You can always travel in English-speaking countries that have cultures different from ours at home. This nixes the language barrier, and also presents traveling families with loads of options that will be awesome vacation spots.

International travel doesn’t always mean you’ll have a language barrier if you travel to:

  • Belize
  • Canada
  • The UK
  • Ireland
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • A lot of the Caribbean (with Spanish-speaking nations like the Dominican Republic aside) like Puerto Rico, Jamaica and former British territories like Bermuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, The US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Grenada and Anguilla
  • English is widely spoken and much of the populations are bilingual in Scandinavia and northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands).

Expect challenges

There may be challenges, especially when it comes to your baby. Asking for fully-cooked food in a restaurant, asking about allergens if your child has some, reading labels on milk, baby formula or baby food at the store and asking for help all might require the use of a translation app.

Even things like speaking with the housekeeping service at the hotel to let them know not to touch your breast pump parts becomes an adventure when you have to translate to another language and try to confirm.

Learn some basic lingo

So, what can you do? Something we’ve tried to do when we travel is to learn some basics in another language. If you have some time to do this, feel free to check out our ideas at this guide to learning a language for traveling.

Learning from an app is probably one of the best ways to go, these days, or watching videos. Even reading kids’ books in another language once you start to get the hang of it if it’s easily “readable” (like Spanish or French) can be fun.

If you wish to focus your studying on baby basics, make a list of words like “crib,” “breastmilk,” “pumping,” “high chair” and “stroller,” and run them by a native speaker to make sure you’ve got them right!

Bring along language basic phrases

Our recommendation, if you’re feeling concerned before the trip, is to bring some helpful baby-related phrases or words from a verified translation app or someone who speaks the language.

You can pick the most important phrases and translate them ahead of time. We’ve only traveled to English- and Spanish-speaking international destinations with our baby, and we speak enough Spanish to get by and excel.

But if we were in a country where we didn’t speak the language, we may want to have saved these most common phrases that we use when we travel:

  • “Do you have a changing table?”
  • “Do you have a high chair?”
  • “Where can I change the baby’s diaper?”
  • “Where is the playground?”

Of course, no one wants to plan ahead for baby health issues, but it may become a part of the trip. It pays to be prepared, and doubly prepared, in places where a different language is spoken.

For one thing, expect that measurements and units of measurement “everywhere else in the world” (unless you are Canadian) might not be in the Imperial systemp of Inches, ounces, feet, pounds. Weight in most parts of the world will be in “kg” and temperature is taken in Celsius in most places (save for select islands in the Caribbean where degrees F is used).

If you have to navigate a health scenario in another language:

  • Ask the hotel concierge if they can help you speak to a doctor or emergency staff.
  • Ask a friend who speaks the language, via phone or Whatsapp, to assist.
  • Use a translation app to the best of your ability.
  • Try to remain calm.

Buying baby products in stores in another language

Can you buy baby products if they’re in another language! We certainly have (in Spanish!). We’ve bought diapers, baby food, baby toys and more, from vendors and from stores in Central and South America.

Here are some tips for doing this:

  • Google Translate is often good enough if you use the camera within the app and can live-translate.
  • You can try and ask someone in the store if they speak English. (Sometimes, a young person, either a cashier or a customer, can help out if they speak good English)
  • You can try to ask someone shopping if they speak English, especially if you also see them in the baby aisle.
  • One last tip: Bring your most important baby products and items from home, because you don’t want to risk giving over-the-counter medicines to your child, as there could be an unexpected allergy or reaction.
  • If given medicine from a pharmacy in a non-emergency scenario, head back to your accommodation and use translation online to translate the ingredients or drugs in the bottle.