Ask DocEspana Anything

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
DrBumblebee said:
Let me translate it for me and all the rest who doesn't know Spanish even a bit.
Click to expand...

Ha ha ha! Google Translate (and most other translation software) makes me laugh. In this case I'm sure it's clear enough to get the basic gist of what he meant, but it would be more accurately translated as, "Do you speak Spanish? If so, have you been able to use it much during the last two years of your studies?"
A subtle difference, and arguably unimportant one, but I majored in Spanish with an emphasis in interpretation and translation and this is where my OCD shows.

Oh, and on a side note, "Castellano", the word NurWollen used for "Spanish", most often has reference to a specific reference to the dialect of Spanish spoken in Argentina. This could indicate either that NurWollen himself learned that dialect of Spanish or that he is specifically asking DocEspana if he speaks that kind of Spanish, or even if DocEspana is from that part of Latin America. Words, they are important.
 
dudeliness said:
Ha ha ha! Google Translate (and most other translation software) makes me laugh. In this case I'm sure it's clear enough to get the basic gist of what he meant, but it would be more accurately translated as, "Do you speak Spanish? If so, have you been able to use it much during the last two years of your studies?"
A subtle difference, and arguably unimportant one, but I majored in Spanish with an emphasis in interpretation and translation and this is where my OCD shows.

Oh, and on a side note, "Castellano", the word NurWollen used for "Spanish", most often has reference to a specific reference to the dialect of Spanish spoken in Argentina. This could indicate either that NurWollen himself learned that dialect of Spanish or that he is specifically asking DocEspana if he speaks that kind of Spanish, or even if DocEspana is from that part of Latin America. Words, they are important.
Click to expand...

This. I also used Catellano instead of Español because I knew at least you would appreciate it.
 
NurWollen said:
Tell that the the patients you might treat someday. Also definitely use that tone when talking about your appreciation of other cultures at your med school interviews.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't get your unbelievably negative response to my post that only translated your post.

It's your problem to tell your patients with this tone of yours. And, you cannot imagine how diverse your patients would be beyond those Spanish speaking.Thus, maybe one day you'll appreciate translators to understand Deutsch, Russian, Turkish, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Afrikaans, and French. Ah, sorry, you only care for patients who can only speak Spanish other than English.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for taking the time here, DocEspana~~ That is super super kind of you doing this.
My questions to you are
(1) Do you know if Touro-COM NY has in-state preference when admitting students?
(2) Is it possible to do rotations in California?
(3) How is food in Touro cafeteria? Is it the place you guys usually eat during school time?
(4) Is there coffee shop/corner in the building? caffeine strong? does it have nice cookies/muffin/cake/...etc?
(5) How is the library? Do you have enough study rooms?
(6) Where do most students live?
(7) Do you know if school is supportive for pregnant students or for those who need maternity leave.
(I know you are a guy, but since you said "ask anything >_<)
(8) Do you know if Ms. Hunter or admission staff are alright and back to work? I haven't been able to reach them for the past few days to reschedule my interview......

Doc, you are a great man!! and thanks so much for the funny links, I laughed my ------off!!!
 
DrBumblebee said:
Well, I don't get your unbelievably negative response to my post that only translated your post.

It's your problem to tell your patients with this tone of yours. And, you cannot imagine how diverse your patients would be beyond those Spanish speaking.Thus, maybe one day you'll appreciate translators to understand Deutsch, Russian, Turkish, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Afrikaans, and French. Ah, sorry, you only care for patients who can only speak Spanish other than English.
Click to expand...

I have a great appreciation for languages in general and have studied several. I think I let your other comments on this thread and peoples' responses to those comments color my own assessment of your tone in translating my Spanish. My bad. I didn't mean to start a fight.


On another note, has anyone heard from DocE? I wonder if he's ok with all the crap going on over in NY.
 
NurWollen said:
I have a great appreciation for languages in general and have studied several. I think I let your other comments on this thread and peoples' responses to those comments color my own assessment of your tone in translating my Spanish. My bad. I didn't mean to start a fight.


On another note, has anyone heard from DocE? I wonder if he's ok with all the crap going on over in NY.
Click to expand...

Sorry, my bad. I had to kill him and convert his body into fossil fuel.
 
NurWollen said:
... I think I let your other comments on this thread and peoples' responses to those comments color my own assessment of your tone in translating my Spanish. My bad. I didn't mean to start a fight...
Click to expand...
np, we're cool, no worries
 
johnnydrama said:
Sorry, my bad. I had to kill him and convert his body into fossil fuel.
Click to expand...

You know french fry grease can be used to power diesel vehicles, right? Since that is the case I am pretty sure you could just pull 1 of about every third patient at any state hospital and just ring them out into a bucket to power your truck.
 
This was the best thread in osteo now it's the most pointless.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app please excuse punctuation and spelling
 
What would you say to a current PharmD student interested in a DO program? Are there many opportunities for a DO graduate to do an IM residency and follow it up with an oncology fellowship?

Also, I hope you were able to get through the storm, and I'm sorry to everyone else for asking a serious question 😀
 
Question to DocEspana: have you heard of any difference regarding to reimbursement, salary, etc. for the same position between a DO and an MD physician?
 
why is premed such a miserable and draining experience?

oh btw, is med school more draining?

thx.
 
phikapdoctor said:
This was the best thread in osteo now it's the most pointless.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app please excuse punctuation and spelling
Click to expand...


I'd still say it's the best thread in pre-osteo. It just has its more ridiculous moments. If only DocE were around...
 
DrBumblebee said:
Question to DocEspana: have you heard of any difference regarding to reimbursement, salary, etc. for the same position between a DO and an MD physician?
Click to expand...

In the same position, DO and MD physicians are paid the same salary.

That said, DOs are less likely to match into high paying specialties.

They may also receive lower paying positions on average within a specialty, but have no data on that and if true it would be very specialty and region dependent.

As far as reimbursement for procedures goes, it is equal.
 
and yes... I speak spanish. My mother is from the Galicia region of Spain and I spent a good bit of my youth over there. And I took "Castellano" the way any Spaniard would. Its redundant. All good spanish is Castillian. To us its pretty much a term only used to describe the specific formal language of spain when you're telling people to stop speaking various south/central american dialects. No one from Spain knows/cares about Argentinians and what they call their dialect.

(btw. As a son of a gallego, I do get bothered by Argentinians (?) calling themselves gallegos)
 
DocEspana said:
and yes... I speak spanish. My mother is from the Galicia region of Spain and I spent a good bit of my youth over there. And I took "Castellano" the way any Spaniard would. Its redundant. All good spanish is Castillian. To us its pretty much a term only used to describe the specific formal language of spain when you're telling people to stop speaking various south/central american dialects. No one from Spain knows/cares about Argentinians and what they call their dialect.

(btw. As a son of a gallego, I do get bothered by Argentinians (?) calling themselves gallegos)
Click to expand...

I feel you man. i have dear argentinian friends...who cares about them?! haha...my grandfather is from malaga and my wife's parents from asturias, though we are first and second respectively, generation born in mexico. We are now spanish-mexican-american?
haha cheers man...salud!
And yeah our spanish is actually on the proper side
 
DocEspana said:
and yes... I speak spanish. My mother is from the Galicia region of Spain and I spent a good bit of my youth over there. And I took "Castellano" the way any Spaniard would. Its redundant. All good spanish is Castillian. To us its pretty much a term only used to describe the specific formal language of spain when you're telling people to stop speaking various south/central american dialects. No one from Spain knows/cares about Argentinians and what they call their dialect.

(btw. As a son of a gallego, I do get bothered by Argentinians (?) calling themselves gallegos)
Click to expand...

Actually, Argentinians refer to all Spaniards as Gallegos, whether they are from Galicia or not. What's worse, Gallego jokes are the Argentinian equivalent of Polish jokes. It's a shame really. They also tend to refer to all Asians as Chinos.

The truth is, though, while I lam partial to the Rioplatense dialect (Uruguay-Argentina-Paraguay) I really love Spanish in general. I find it absolutely mind blowing that the language I learned 6,000 miles away in South America can also be used to communicate with millions of Spanish speakers right here in my own state.
 
Last edited:
TXKnight said:
I feel you man. i have dear argentinian friends...who cares about them?! haha...my grandfather is from malaga and my wife's parents from asturias, though we are first and second respectively, generation born in mexico. We are now spanish-mexican-american?
haha cheers man...salud!
And yeah our spanish is actually on the proper side
Click to expand...

People assume Mexican Spanish is all slangy and informal. Linguistically speaking, Mexican Spanish is one of the more conservative varieties, I believe.
 
NurWollen said:
People assume Mexican Spanish is all slangy and informal. Linguistically speaking, Mexican Spanish is one of the more conservative varieties, I believe.
Click to expand...

This is true. But thats only for the well educated. There are many many subdialects within mexico. But their more or less "official" spanish is rather loyal to the original mother language. With that said.... "z". No one ever does it right.
 
NurWollen said:
People assume Mexican Spanish is all slangy and informal. Linguistically speaking, Mexican Spanish is one of the more conservative varieties, I believe.
Click to expand...

I agree with you 100%. The few differences that i can tell, besides the obvious accent, are regional variations of some words (same thing as american vs british English) and the use of a variation of some pronouns. But I speak mexican spanish and communicate perfectly fine with the spaniards i talk to.
 
NurWollen said:
Actually, Argentinians refer to all Spaniards as Gallegos, whether they are from Galicia or not. What's worse, Gallego jokes are the Argentinian equivalent of Polish jokes. It's a shame really. They also tend to refer to all Asians as Chinos.

The truth is, though, while I lam partial to the Rioplatense dialect (Uruguay-Argentina-Paraguay) I really love Spanish in general. I find it absolutely mind blowing that the language I learned 6,000 miles away in South America can also be used to communicate with millions of Spanish speakers right here in my own state.
Click to expand...

This made me laugh, because it's true
 
AlexJK said:
I am eyeballing a competitive surgical specialty (Ortho) and have DMU and CCOM to choose from. I am from Illinois, so I am looking at CCOM more seriously. I noticed that CCOM also has an Ortho residency nearby. Do you think this would be very beneficial? I have heard that to get into the current competitive AOA residencies, one must rotated there to even get an interview. If this is true, do you think this will keep the MD students out after the merge? Also, do you think these 2 schools have any real name recognition in ACGME programs (like ortho) or is it just like..."oh another DO, LuLZ"?
Click to expand...

Bump

im interested in reading your knowledgeable perspective on this question as well.
 
Are you voting today?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app please excuse punctuation and spelling
 
Is there any way to get a refund? Because I'm about to finish my 1st quarter MS1 and I can't do this **** anymore.
 
Did you get into any of those MDs? If so, why did you pick Touro?
 
Osteoblaster said:
Bump

im interested in reading your knowledgeable perspective on this question as well.
Click to expand...

AOA Ortho is more difficult than I previously thought. Ortho programs, with the exception of one or 2, really only invite you if you rotated there. Realistically, you can only rotate at about 5 programs before the match, which makes your odds pretty crappy. I don't know anyone in my class with more than 3 interviews for ortho. No one I know has any Acgme invites.
 
cliquesh said:
AOA Ortho is more difficult than I previously thought. Ortho programs, with the exception of one or 2, really only invite you if you rotated there. Realistically, you can only rotate at about 5 programs before the match, which makes your odds pretty crappy. I don't know anyone in my class with more than 3 interviews for ortho. No one I know has any Acgme invites.
Click to expand...

I know 1-2 students with 4/5 in my class, a few more students with 3; no one in my class has applied acgme as far as I know. Usually no rotation = no legit chance of matching there.
 
DwightSchruteDO said:
I know 1-2 students with 4/5 in my class, a few more students with 3; no one in my class has applied acgme as far as I know. Usually no rotation = no legit chance of matching there.
Click to expand...

Does this apply for G surg too?
 
JoAyi said:
Thanks for taking the time here, DocEspana~~ That is super super kind of you doing this.
My questions to you are
(1) Do you know if Touro-COM NY has in-state preference when admitting students?
(2) Is it possible to do rotations in California?
(3) How is food in Touro cafeteria? Is it the place you guys usually eat during school time?
(4) Is there coffee shop/corner in the building? caffeine strong? does it have nice cookies/muffin/cake/...etc?
(5) How is the library? Do you have enough study rooms?
(6) Where do most students live?
(7) Do you know if school is supportive for pregnant students or for those who need maternity leave.
(I know you are a guy, but since you said "ask anything >_<)
(8) Do you know if Ms. Hunter or admission staff are alright and back to work? I haven't been able to reach them for the past few days to reschedule my interview......

Doc, you are a great man!! and thanks so much for the funny links, I laughed my ------off!!!
Click to expand...

Doc is busy at the aeropuerto.

1. No real instate preference - I would say most classes are 60-40 or close to 50-50 In-state vs out of state.

2. If you plan all of your electives in California then you can possibly do up to 9 rotations in California between your 3rd and 4th year of medical school. 1 elective 3rd year, 1 vacation month 3rd year; 4 electives 4th year, 1 vacation month 4th year, 1 surgical subspecialty 4th year, 1 medicine subspecialty 4th year. That is almost a year in California.

3. Food is all kosher. good balance of students who eat out, eat there, bring their own food. Cafeteria fills up fast usually, people eat in study rooms and lecture halls to or go out to eat wherever.

4. 1 start bucks right across the street from school, another 2 blocks away, dunkin donuts a block away, the 'kosher corner' does have caffeine available - coffee and other caffeinated beverages.

5. most books and journals are available online. during school hours the library and study rooms may be full; usually you won;t have trouble finding space unless there is a big test the next day, but after 5pm its pretty much empty - you can also study in the lecture halls and classrooms after then. NYC has a lot of other public libraries/places of study you can go to for your studying needs.

6. Around the school in Harlem or Upper west side.

7. can of worms...leave to doc espana during the first 2 years; school has been a bit more accommodating than in the past.. but during 3rd and 4th year people have babies like there's no tomorrow. A dozen babies born during these years in my class because you can plan your vacation month accordingly and move things around.

8. Big snow storm just hit NYC last night. Not sure how the situation is in the administration building.
 
Last edited:
Ost3oclast said:
Does this apply for G surg too?
Click to expand...

Just off of the top of my head in my class we have:

2 people applying urology
5-6 people applying general surgery
7-8 people applying to orthopedic surgery

This is just based upon the people I have spoken; there may be more people applying to a surgical specialty. Not sure what everyone's interview situation is but most people have gotten interviews where they have rotated so that's at least 3 per. One of my friends at another DO school has 10 gen surg interviews.
 
DrWily said:
No, but med school is no joke lol

One day I might appreciate all this madness. Right now, it sucks balls.
Click to expand...

you will look back at M1 and be like man, M1 was so much easier compared to now and later on you will look back at all 4 years and be like it was kinda fun, a lot better than I thought it would be.
 
DwightSchruteDO said:
you will look back at M1 and be like man, M1 was so much easier compared to now and later on you will look back at all 4 years and be like it was kinda fun, a lot better than I thought it would be.
Click to expand...

Prob right. I'm still adjusting to my new studious lifestyle after being out of school for 3 years. I went gung-ho from the start right out of the blocks, and I started to lose steam around week 11 (1st quarter is 13 weeks). Hopefully the shorter quarters (10 weeks from now on) will be easier for me to deal with. The thanksgiving break will be nice to get away, but it won't be long enough lol. I enjoy being in medical school; I just haven't adjusted 100% to the daily grind.
 
Hey DrWily,

What's the hardest part about the adjustment if you don't mind me asking? Do you think you'd have done something differently if you had to restart the year again knowing what you know now?
 
ValentineLissar said:
Hey DrWily,

What's the hardest part about the adjustment if you don't mind me asking? Do you think you'd have done something differently if you had to restart the year again knowing what you know now?
Click to expand...

As anyone here would tell you, the sheer amount of material. It's all easy if you had the time to go through it and look at it in depth, but when you have multiple classes that are all equally important and demand your time, you tend to get overwhelmed.

I would stay on top of things as much as possible. I started out doing very well (I'm still on track for a 4.0 my 1st quarter, but have one more final and I think I didn't do well on today's final), but towards the end of the quarter, I started getting burnt out and falling behind. Everyday, go over the lectures for that day and commit some of it to memory. When you start slacking, things snowball fast.
 
DrWily said:
As anyone here would tell you, the sheer amount of material. It's all easy if you had the time to go through it and look at it in depth, but when you have multiple classes that are all equally important and demand your time, you tend to get overwhelmed.

I would stay on top of things as much as possible. I started out doing very well (I'm still on track for a 4.0 my 1st quarter, but have one more final and I think I didn't do well on today's final), but towards the end of the quarter, I started getting burnt out and falling behind. Everyday, go over the lectures for that day and commit some of it to memory. When you start slacking, things snowball fast.
Click to expand...

With that in mind and knowing your curriculum and what you know about pbl, do you wish you had gone to a pbl school?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
Not at all. I like the structure of a "normal" curriculum and with the way my school is set up, you absolutely HAVE to stay on top of it with weekly tests. As I understand it, PBL has less tests which mean bigger tests and worth more points, and that would scare the **** out of me. I had 5 exams in most classes this quarter, so if I did poorly on one, I could make it up on the other four. Likewise I had a 98% going into biochem final with the knowledge that I could get a 63% and still keep a 93% (A) in the class, aka i could fail the test and still get an A.

Plus, I hate relying on other people for information. It's not that I don't trust them, but I will look up anything someone mentions to me to see if it is indeed a true fact. Afterall, it is my grade on the line. I guess the true goal of PBL is to better integrate all of the information into a solid foundation through systems-based learning. I don't have any trouble integrating the different parts of Basic Science to give myself an overall picture, so maybe this is why I don't feel as though PBL would be a good fit for me.
 
MedPR said:
Too lazy to read 20 pages. I'm glad you typed more words without answering than johnnydrama did while answering.


Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
Click to expand...

Yes but you asked "why" he decided that, and that is answered very clearly on what I believe is the first of 4 pages.
 
Dr wily, have you gone back to LA to see your s/o since you started?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using SDN Mobile
 
zoner said:
Dr wily, have you gone back to LA to see your s/o since you started?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using SDN Mobile
Click to expand...

This is an AMA DocEspana thread, not DrWily thread!

I have gone back a few times, but she comes here 90% of the time.
 
DrWily said:
This is an AMA DocEspana thread, not DrWily thread!

I have gone back a few times, but she comes here 90% of the time.
Click to expand...

DrWily,

There's this girl in class that I think is really cute. Should I ask her out?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dodoo123
  • Locked
Help with 'Anything else' question on secondary
Replies
4
Views
922
Goro
Goro
J
Non-traditional DO Student Just Matched Gen Surg… Ask me anything…
Replies
39
Views
4K
JMS54
J
S
Ask me anything - DO Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon
Replies
18
Views
5K
Matthew9Thirtyfive
Matthew9Thirtyfive
anonymouskoala28
Ask me anything
Replies
15
Views
3K
deleted610572
D
Desperatefuturedr
Is it weird that I haven't heard anything from DO schools?
Replies
24
Views
4K
Obnoxious Dad
Obnoxious Dad
Top