As above, I will be traveling in Japan and speak zero Japanese. I also have a very serious peanut allergy and need to check if dishes contain peanuts whilst I’m out there, so I’ve google translated some text to show to wait staff/cooks etc. For those that speak Japanese, does it make sense and achieve my desired message? I’m aware google translate is iffy at the best of times. Text is as follows:
‘私はピーナッツにアレルギーがあるので食べられません。この料理にはピーナッツが含まれていますか?’
Many thanks in advance!
14 comments
Yeah, it makes sense to me. I’m sure there’s better options out there and someone will surely chime in, but the message is perfectly understandable.
This just reminds me of this scene from James may: our man in Japan.
https://youtu.be/S3vPoVRFoWw?si=ehmaWKlb93X7p_WP
Checked with my Japanese wife and she said it sounded very natural and easy to understand. As a side note, we were in Japan over the summer and were out quite a bit. My daughter has peanut allergies but luckily peanuts are not commonly used in Japanese food. I would be more careful with cookies and snack foods.
It makes sense but be aware that many Japanese restaurants do not have a culture of modifications in food so if you want a parfait that generally has peanuts without peanuts, they’ll say no most likely. You’d have to order something that had no peanuts to start with.
If youre staying at a hotel in a city like tokyo, most hotel provide you with a card for tourist that you can check off for your allegy and preference. Give it the restaurant staff and theyll let you know if they can accomodate.
I have a severe tree nut allergy and bought an allergy card online that I showed to restaurants/cafes/etc. when I was purchasing food, if you want a back-up option! (Having a physical card also really helped for the staff to take to the kitchen to ask chefs/managers clearly without losing anything in translation!)
It makes sense, but it’s a question as to whether the food contains peanuts. (So although the meaning is understood, technically, you are asking for an answer.) I might turn that more into something that just says that the food must not have peanuts.
‘私はピーナッツにアレルギーがあるので食べられません。この料理にはピーナッツが含まれていないように確かめてくださいませんか?’
That would be…
‘I am allergic to peanuts and cannot eat them. Can you please make sure that this dish does not contain peanuts?’
Rather than…
‘I am allergic to peanuts and cannot eat them. Does this food contain peanuts?’
A very minor difference, and it’s still ultimately a question, but you might be more likely to get an “OK” sign or a nod or something rather than an answer in Japanese.
It sounds fine, but just a heads up, you’re directly asking a question
>この料理にはピーナッツが含まれていますか?’
Which is gonna be a tad unhelpful if you don’t actually understand their response.
I’m assuming you know this, but you never know with some people!
Be wary of Chinese restaurants, they often cook with peanut oil and won’t think to mention it as “containing peanuts.” I had a friend react to a bowl of ramen with peanut oil in it, too. Severe allergies are not commonly understood here. Most people think of “food allergies” as diarrhea or red face, not anaphylaxis. If your allergy is severe I recommend you carry an epi-pen with you. A friend of mine visited, was served prawn soup. Said sorry I have a shellfish allergy. Staff offered to remove the prawns from the soup and didn’t understand why that would not change anything. Just FYI. If you stay vigilant and show your message to the staff, and have a friend or app to help you understand the responses you should be fine. It’s good that you’re being proactive.
The only thing I would note is that you haven’t included any consequences to your allergy. One of my friends has an allergy and will go into anaphylactic shock if they consume peanuts so if you have a particularly serious allergy, you might want to amend this with:
> 大事なアレルギー
(serious allergy)
or
> 命に関わるアレルギー
(life threatening allergy)
Is that how you spell allergy in Japanese? I think it’s funny how often soft g gets turned into hard g in loan words
You could do what my friend used to do here which was just say “すみません、ちょっとピーナッツにアレルギーがありますですけど…” and most of the time they understood she wanted to know if any of the food had peanuts in them
Sounds good! I think you’ll be fine though. I have a tree nut and peanut allergy and I was always fine in Japan. I think I only mentioned it in a patisserie because I saw a pastry that looked like it had nuts. Otherwise, it’s not a common ingredient for many dishes
I just got back from 3 months in Japan (studying Japanese lol). Here’s what I observed based on trying to speak to staff to clarify for my vegetarian wife (i.e. ramen broth containing fish etc)
* Most waitstaff ain’t gonna have a clue if the food contains peanuts or have been prepared on a surface where other food has been prepared using peanuts. Like someone else said this ain’t like the UK where they ask you if you have any allergies 100% of the time
* Much easier to research where to eat beforehand when you have dietary requirements than wing it and try find one to walk into. If you’re going out somewhere, go on google maps and do a nearby search for places to eat before or after nearby. Then check the menu section and ‘view menu’, it’ll usually have a semi recent menu. Then you can save the photo and use Google Translate for English if it isn’t already. Then you can get down to googling what ingredients are typically in the meal you want and whether peanuts is one of them.
* Japanese culture uses a more formal version of Japanese (called Keigo) which uses a variety of different more polite words so Google Translate isn’t gonna cut it beforehand to understand their replies. For example, yes (hai – はい) they may say かしこまりました (kashikomarimashita) which is equivalent to “certainly sir/m’am). Someone else pointed out this understanding their really problem and I can see it being particularly difficult if they throw in 5 other polite terms before and after that you’re not gonna know if they said yes or no.
* I think you’re better off doing what you’ve already got planned in finding a specific thing you wanna eat that you don’t think has peanuts and then asking rather than making a blanket statement that you are allergic to peanuts. Another commenter said Japanese don’t like to be direct which is true but they are much more forgiving to foreigners plus it’s literally your life. If you say does X have peanuts they can always go ask the cooking staff. If you make a blanket statement and they don’t know they’re not gonna ask about every menu item to the cooking staff.
* Like someone else said they don’t typically modify food so don’t ask for something with peanut ingredient abc removed. And even western restaurants seem to miss customised meals half the time, so it’s really not a risk worth taking in another language.