Me now can speak

Me no speak Chinese. Or Korean, or Thai or Turkish, for that matter. And my confidence in my pronunciation of French, nuance of Italian and vocabulary of Spanish is, well, sketchy at best. As for sketching my requirements, now there I am not too poorly off... But it does rather take time and blank pages and the indulgence of the accosted stranger to draw the WC &mdash a strategy not reliable for those desperate times.

Which is why I think the intuitive picturebook approach of these point-and-speak language companions borders on genius. The authors &mdash travel writer, photographer and designer Cheryn Flanagan and IT consultant Benjamin Kolowich &mdash actually evolved the concept of the Me No Speak series out of their own use of flashcard-like sketches while in China. And having gone hungry more than once while at the mercy of too rarified or basic a guidebook and phrase translator, they beefed up the Food & Drink sections to be particularly meaty. Not just juk (congee), but let&rsquos say with what, for instance There is even help with shopping and medical care, traveller essentials many language companions tend to overlook, sadly.