Flashcards have been helping people learn languages for decades — and for good reason. They work. The combination of active recall and repetition embeds phrases in a way that passively reading a phrasebook never quite does. Which is exactly what you need when you’re standing at a restaurant counter in Tokyo trying to explain you can’t eat gluten, or asking a ski hire shop in Val d’Isère if your boots are ready.
The difference for travellers with dietary restrictions is that generic phrase lists don’t cut it. “Where is the station?” won’t help you when you need to know if the soup stock contains barley. You need phrases that are specific to your trip, your restrictions, and the situations you’ll actually find yourself in.
That’s where two tools work brilliantly together. Anki, a free flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help you remember things far more effectively than cramming. And our personalised Travel Phrase Guide, which generates a phrase list tailored to your destination and dietary needs. Together they let you learn exactly what you need, nothing more, nothing less.
In this guide I’ll show you how to combine them so you arrive prepared, not just with the right words, but with the confidence to actually use them.
And if Japan is on your list? I’ve put together the exact Anki deck I used on my last trip there as a free download, no tools required, no strings attached, just a solid head start. Grab the Japan phrase deck here →
Why Bother Learning Local Phrases for Travel?
Let’s be honest, turning up somewhere and launching straight into English (no matter how slowly or loudly) rarely builds a good first impression.
Even learning just five basics; hello, please, thank you, yes, and no, goes a long way. Locals appreciate the effort, and it often leads to better service, warmer smiles, and easier communication. It’s one of the simplest ways to stand out from the average tourist.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” – Nelson Mandela.
For those with allergies or dietary needs, this isn’t just about manners, it’s often essential for safety. Translation apps are helpful, but they’re not always practical when you’re in a rush, offline, or trying to clarify an ingredient in a noisy Tokyo convenience store.
What Is Anki and Why Is It So Effective?
Anki is a free flashcard app that uses spaced repetition, a scientifically proven memory technique, to help you remember things more effectively.
Instead of passive review, Anki uses:
- Active Recall: Forces your brain to retrieve info, like answering a quiz
- Spaced Repetition: Shows you cards just before you’d forget them
- Customisation: Supports images, audio, and anything you want to memorise
It works on desktop and mobile, and once you get the hang of it, it’s a game-changer, for travel, study, or even learning a musical instrument.
What Phrases Do You Actually Need?
Generic phrasebooks are… fine. But they’re full of stuff you’ll never say. Our Travel Phrase Guide is built specifically for travellers with dietary restrictions, or anyone who wants to make more meaningful local connections. You’ll get:
- Allergy-specific phrases like “Does this contain dairy?”
- Travel-type phrases like “Where can I get my snowboard waxed?”
- Essentials like “Can I see a menu?” or “No wheat, please.”
It even includes pronunciation tips and cultural notes so you don’t just sound fluent, you sound polite.
Whether you’re gluten free in Japan or wine tasting in France, the phrases are tailored to your trip. If something’s missing? Just ask the guide to add it.
If you haven’t used our Travel Phrase Guide yet, check out the YouTube video below where we show you step by step how to create your own customised list
How to Build Your Own Deck
If you’re heading somewhere other than Japan, or you want to add your own restrictions and destinations, here’s how to build your own deck from scratch in about twenty minutes.
Full instruction on getting started with Anki are available on their website here: Getting started with Anki
Creating a CSV Using ChatGPT or similar
Copy your phrase list into ChatGPT (or similar) and ask it to format a CSV like this:
Can you create a CSV file for Anki flashcards with these phrases?
Format with pipe (|) separators and these headers:
English Phrase | Local Language | Pronunciation | Section
In the same message then enter the output from the Travel Phrase Guide
Use section tags like:
- Essential Everyday Travel Phrases
- Eating Out
- Allergy & Food Safety
- Trip Type Specific
- Shopping
The output will look like this (see image)
Import into Excel
- Paste the CSV into Excel
- Use Data > Text to Columns
- Choose Delimited, select “Tab” and “Other” (use
|) - You’ll now see neatly organised columns
Delete the header if needed and save as a CSV file.
Optional: If you want the foreign phrase and pronunciation in the same flashcard field, combine them in Excel first.
Images of the key steps are below
Load It into Anki
- Open Anki
- Go to File > Import, select your CSV
- Set field separator to comma
, - Map fields:
- Front = English
- Back = Target Language (e.g. Japanese + Romaji)
- Tags = Section
- Import and start reviewing!
Download: The Japan Allergy Phrase Deck
This is the exact Anki deck I used when I travelled Japan gluten and dairy free. It covers the phrases I actually needed — in restaurants, at convenience stores, reading labels, and asking about hidden ingredients like soy sauce and miso.
You don’t need to be a member, and you don’t need to hand over your email. It’s just here because if I’d found something like this before my trip, it would have saved me hours.
Download the Japan Anki Deck — free →
Already have Anki? Import it and you’re ready to go. Never heard of Anki? Scroll up, I’ll walk you through exactly how to set it up in about five minutes.
When and How to Study Effectively
Ten minutes a day for three weeks before your trip is enough to make a real difference. Start with the greetings and restaurant and ordering phrases first, those are the ones you’ll reach for most.
The Anki app works offline, so the flight over is genuinely useful revision time if you’ve been building the habit at home.
How to Study
- Don’t flip too quickly: Let your brain struggle — that’s where the learning happens
- Say it out loud: Speaking boosts memory and improves pronunciation
- Rotate topics: Alternate between food phrases, essentials, and trip-specific vocab
- Use real context: Pair flashcards with YouTube, podcasts, menus, or even airport signs
Bonus Tips for Real-World Confidence
Want to make your language learning actually work when you’re on the ground? These tips will help you bridge the gap between your flashcards and the real world
- Learn real phrases, not textbook fluff – Focus on what you’ll actually say like “Is this gluten-free?” or “No dairy, please.”
- Practise saying it out loud, often. Speaking activates a different part of your brain than reading or typing.
- Save the Travel Phrase Guide output on your phone or a printed allergy card, having a backup like screenshots of key phrases helps avoid awkward or risky situations.
- Use it from day one on the trip – Order coffee in the local language, greet your host, thank your taxi driver. Early wins build confidence and improve retention.
- Listen as much as you can – Music, Podcasts, YouTube, airport announcements, you’re training your ear so you can recognise words in context. You won’t catch everything, just recognising one or two words is progress.
- Locals love the effort – You don’t need to be fluent. Just trying earns smiles, patience, and often better service. It shows respect
Final Thoughts
Just remember phrases are brilliant for building confidence and showing respect, but they work best alongside an allergy card and a translation app for the moments when conversation gets complicated. If you haven’t sorted those yet, this guide to allergy cards vs translation apps is worth a read before you go.
Want to skip the setup? Download the ready-made flashcard deck I built for my upcoming gluten and dairy-free snowboarding trip to Japan, or head over to the Travel Phrase Guide to create your own in minutes.
However you use it, deck downloaded, built from scratch, or somewhere in between — arriving with even a handful of the right phrases changes the experience. Good luck out there.
FAQ
What is Anki and is it free?
Anki is a flashcard app that uses spaced repetition — a learning method that shows you phrases just before you’re likely to forget them, which means you remember more with less time spent studying. It’s free on desktop and Android, and a one-off purchase on iPhone (around USD $25, which sounds steep but it’s a one-time cost for a genuinely excellent app). There’s also a web version at ankiweb.net if you’d rather not download anything straight away.
Is Anki better than Duolingo for learning travel phrases?
They’re built for different things. Duolingo is great for building general language skills over time, it’s structured, gamified, and keeps you motivated. Anki is better when you have a specific list of phrases you need to know by a certain date, which is exactly the situation most travellers are in. For learning “I’m gluten free, does this contain wheat?” in Japanese before a trip next month, Anki wins. For learning conversational Italian over the next year, Duolingo is more fun.
How many phrases do I actually need?
Fewer than you think. For most trips, twenty to thirty phrases covering ordering, asking about ingredients, and a few label-reading essentials will get you a long way. The goal isn’t fluency, it’s having enough to start a conversation and show staff you’re taking your needs seriously. From there, a translation app can handle the detail.
Does this work for any language?
Yes. The method works for any language and any destination. The Japan deck is specific to Japanese, but the guide above walks you through building your own deck for wherever you’re headed, from generating the phrases and a simple CSV import to get them into Anki. It takes around twenty minutes and the result is a deck built entirely around your restrictions and your trip.
What phrases should I prioritise if I have food allergies?
Start with the phrases you’ll use every single day, telling staff what you can’t eat, asking if a dish contains your allergen, and checking whether something is prepared separately to avoid cross-contamination. After that, add label-reading phrases for supermarkets and convenience stores, and one or two polite ways to ask to speak to a chef or manager if you’re not getting a clear answer. Everything else is a bonus.
Can I use the Japan deck even if I’m not using Globally Sauced tools?
Absolutely, that’s the whole point. The deck stands alone. Download it, import it into Anki, and start learning. No account needed, no membership required. If you find the tools useful later, brilliant. If not, the deck is still yours.
Jo is the founder of Globally Sauced, a travel platform for dietary restricted travellers and is gluten and dairy free. When not outdoors or travelling, she loves to empower people with dietary restrictions so they can explore the world safely.
Globally Sauced offers verified restaurant recommendations, country-specific guides, food label / menu translations, and more downloadable resources for gluten-free, dairy-free, allergy-conscious and other dietary restricted travellers. Learn more at globallysauced.com
