<p>I'm entering my second year of college. I did some shadowing over the summer, and one thing that kept coming up, and which stood out to me, was that there were a number of patients who only spoke Spanish. So that got me thinking about learning. Not to milk it on med school apps or claim fluency. But by the time I'm actually practicing, to be able to have conversations and explain medical things in Spanish. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can I actually do this? For one thing, I have 0 Spanish experience. Also, I can't roll my R's. </p></li>
<li><p>Should I actually do this? I'm not super-passionate about the Spanish-speaking community or about Spanish culture; I just don't know much about either. I just think it would be practical to speak Spanish when there are so many Spanish-speaking people in this country. My primary goal is to learn Medical Spanish.</p></li>
<li><p>How should I go about it?
[ul]
[li]** Take Spanish courses in college:** There's a Spanish Language and Hispanic Culture minor and a Spanish for the Professions minor. Both require about 10 courses, which I don't think I have room for in my schedule since I decided on pre-med and on my major late. Also, I hated my high school French classes. Making the little dialogues about fake scenarios with a partner, reading little blurbs on random topics, Power Point presentations on "My trip to Quebec." And I never got a good accent... Will college language classes be any different? </p></li>[/li]</ol>
<p>[li]Study / Work / Volunteer abroad: I'm not really interested in spending a whole semester or year in another country, but I do understand the need to be in a Spanish-only environment and for a long period of time. I'd want to go to a Latin American country, not Spain. But do I need to have a certain level of proficiency first, take a certain number of Spanish courses?</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Work with Spanish-speaking populations in the US: Again, would that require some proficiency first?</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Books, tapes, software?</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Some combination? What works best?[/li][/ul]
Thanks.</p>
<p>My D is fluent in French but spoke little Spanish when she began med school. She took part in an language immersion program that her medical school offered. The class is typically taken during the first summer of med school though she took it during her research year. It gave her a great base from which she has become a competent speaker in a medical environment. If you studied another romance language during high school and/or college you will probably learn Spanish pretty quickly. She is now a resident at a NYC hospital and uses her Spanish every day. Her hospital has translators but she has found that she doesn’t need them. I suspect that many medical schools offer programs like this. The real issue with trying to learn a new language is to use it, even if you feel uncomfortable doing so. D found that the Spanish speakers in NYC were very patient when talking to an inarticulate newbie. She also did an away rotation in a Spanish speaking country and that took her to another level.</p>
<p>I know people who have gone the tape route but they have used them for travel Spanish and not for when they truly need to be able to converse. Perhaps your college offers an intensive course or you could take one during the summer. YMMV but from my limited observation the intensive approach (4-5 hr/day for a month or more) will take you well on your way to where you want to be. </p>
<p>I know two brothers in med school, both of whom took Spanish in 3rd / 4th year of college to help themselves in med school. There is no way one can be a good doctor or medical student in Texas or California without knowing some Spanish.</p>
<p>I should add that there are pay to play programs specifically designed for medical students during their M1 summer where you travel to Central America, work in a public clinic or hospital and study medical Spanish. D knows numerous now-doctors who went that route.</p>
<p>I have couple examples.
-One of D’s pre-med friends was triple major Zoology / Spanish / Latin Studies. However , this non-latin girl was fluent in Spanish before college - she had nanny who was asked to use only Spanish.
-This may be more reasonable (and closer to you) example. My D. had to take a placement tests before she was to rgister for her first sememster of UG. She happened to score higher that the highest listed score, whcih placed her in 3rd year college Spanish (apparently she had a good HS teacher). Her major required foreign language, so she took ONE sememster of 3rd year Spanish. Again, teacher (prof.) was incredible, it ended up being one of the best D’s UG classes.
She kept saying that she is not fluent. However, 2 years after her class we took her to vacation in Mexico, and we both witnessed (with our jaws to the ground) her speaking fluently to a non-English speaking native. Then, while in Med. School, she took Medical Spanish, placed into intermediate level. This was not required, something that D. did on her own. Because of that (at least we think so), she was able to get a spot on Med. School trip to poor/remote villeges in Peru where she had ample chances to poractice her Spanish and more so in medical setting. This was incredible experience all together and needless to say there were more applicants than spots available.
Forward into her 3rd year - clinical rotations. When she was rotating at location wiht great concentration of Spanish speaking patinets (at least 60% - no English), she was the only Med. Student who was required by the fluently speaking doc. to take patient history in Spanish and report to doc. in Spanish (in front of the patient). No other students in her rotation had enough Spanish to do so. While it was nerve breaking experience, it was definitely very rewarding.<br>
In short, yes, it is very possible to get some fluncy in Spanish while continue improving it later. And more opportunities will be opened to you in Med. School, take a chance at them as much as you could.<br>
As far as software goes (in regard to general Spanish, not Medical), I am currently using Rosetta Stone, but I started with zero, no Spanish background at all. I love it, requires no memory (which I do not have at all). </p>
<p>@OnMyWay2013 - I agree with Elleneast that immersion is the best way to go. But if you can carefully plan to take a year at college and then immediately do the immersion that summer you will get the most out of it. Don’t worry about rolling your r’s, a good teacher will help you with either learning to do it or obtaining a working facsimile. The other important thing is to then make sure you either take more classes when you return or find a “spanish table” at lunch or something similar where you can speak it at least a couple times a week. Because texaspg is also correct, as you also observed, that there are many situations where it is quite necessary.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the answers, I didn’t even know you could do things like that during medical school! </p>
<p>Also, I’ll have to take a gap year before medical school, and I know students normally do something during this time. Would this be the ideal time to take Spanish classes? Or should I do it in college and then go somewhere Spanish-speaking during my gap year? Or will I be too busy to do something that big?</p>
<p>D is a pre-med Spanish major entering her senior year. She spent her first sophomore year semester in Costa Rica, before she settled on Spanish as a major. She had always stated that her HS Spanish teachers were terrible and that she did not learn anything. </p>
<p>She did some travelling to South America at the end of the semester. She was flying out of a small airport in Colombia to get back to Costa Rica to get her luggage before heading back to the US when an airport official took her passport 3 minutes before the plane left. He tried to bribe her to give him money in order to get her passport back. This was at an airport with no English speakers. She was able to speak Spanish well enough to get him to give her the passport back without giving him any money and made the flight back. That was enough to convince her she was more fluent than she thought she was and she settled on a major.</p>
<p>All of that to say, being somewhat fluent in a 2nd language, whatever it is, can only help a person with whatever they want to do with their life, whether it is being a doctor or being something else.</p>
<p>@OnMyWay2013 - IMO, spending a gap year becoming fluent in Spanish while helping people in a Spanish community is an ideal way to spend a gap year.</p>
<p>If you take a gap year, sure, why not in addition to having some Med. Research Internship (which is normal, but frankly, I am not familiar with gap year), you could also take Spanish classes. I wonder also (worthwhile to check!!) if Medical Spanish classes are available only to Medical Students or are open also to those who are planning to apply to Med. School. From D’s experience if prof. is good one semester of the 3rd year of college Spanish should be good to get you somewhat fluent and that was enough to place D. into Intermediate level of Medical Spanish (all I have mentioned before, this is basically summary of D’s steps). As I also said, that will open more opportunities for you to participate in various Spanish environments (I did not mention all) at Med. School. Frankly, D. even had couple experiences at Med. School that involved her other foreign language and both were noted later in her evals / comments. </p>