bilingual much?

[lemoncurry]

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I know we have a fair amount of members here whose heritage originates from countries other than the US. How many are at least bilingual?

How important is it for dentists/specialists to speak a second language? Living in SoCal, it seems like it would be important for me to speak at least Spanish. Unfortunately, I don't speak as much as I understand.

For those who are bilingual, do you plan to practice in an area where your non-english language will be more useful?




just making some lame conversation since I am not expecting anything in the mail anytime soon......

 

[dddsmack]

UNLV requires a 1st year spanish class. I only speaka de english. In my practice, dollars will be the official language.

 

[MrTeeth]

i plan on practicing in an area where there is access for the minorities and at the same time there is access for from the downtown area of my state, that way i could use my russian and spanish skills to get close with the community while still maintaining a high cliental with the higher class patients.

 

[dizzle23x]

i'm bilingual in english and cantonese. after shadowing my dentist i realized how many patients you can attract and retain knowing mutliple languages so i'm also thinking about going to china next semester to learn mandarin.

however, i wouldn't want to focus on just one subset of the population...i'd want to work in an area with a lot of diversity

 

[bruinpredent]

english and farsi here...though unless i work in irvine or LA, my bilingualness will be pretty useless methinks

 

[sejin8642]

I am bilingual too speaking Korean and English. But I don't see any advanatage of speaking two languages except when I watch Korean movies 😎

 

[MoobDDS]

UNLV requires a 1st year spanish class. I only speaka de english. In my practice, dollars will be the official language.

is this a undergrad spanish class requirement or will this be fulfilled during 1st year dental school

 

[fancymylotus]

trilingual,and i also took six years of latin(although its not a spoken language,haha)

 

[fancymylotus]

english and farsi here...though unless i work in irvine or LA, my bilingualness will be pretty useless methinks

or if you decide to move to great neck,NY

 

[maksidaa]

i speak thai, but i don't think it will help much in the states. i do think it'll help out when i want to get involved with overseas trips to work in clinics in thailand. i took four years of spanish in high school so i can speak enough to interact w/ clients. the dentist i shadow speaks fluent spanish and he gets a lot of spanish speakers due to that. i'm taking mandarin right now and i'd love to so some work in china, but we'll see if i get the chance or not.

 

[Euphoria36]

i am fluently tirlingual, can hold conversations in spanish (though i understand it far better than i can speak it) and working on smattering of japanese (which by the way is a beautiful language) 😉

 

[hgfdsa]

i think its very important to speak more than one language... the more people you can make your practice available to, the better it is for eveyone

 

[denteng]

Fluently trilingual

 

[lemoncurry]

i am fluently tirlingual, can hold conversations in spanish (though i understand it far better than i can speak it) and working on smattering of japanese (which by the way is a beautiful language) 😉

which languages are you fluent in?


I just remembered that I speak ein bisschen deutsch, not that it will help me at all.

 

[AtkinDent]

When patients open their mouth wide on dentist chairs, that essentially makes verbal communication almost impossible. So, why worry about language barrier?😕

 

[DAS]

I am also bilingual. Amharic + English, so I am planning to practice in the Washington DC area.

 

[wigglytooth]

or if you decide to move to great neck,NY

too true

 

[Euphoria36]

When patients open their mouth wide on dentist chairs, that essentially makes verbal communication almost impossible. So, why worry about language barrier?😕

haha...its getting the patients to your office to open their mouths is what requires the verbal communication

 

[fancymylotus]

haha...its getting the patients to your office to open their mouths is what requires the verbal communication

thats what good marketing/PR people are for

 

[Euphoria36]

thats what good marketing/PR people are for

yes but the marketing & PR people are not working on the patients. without proper communication skills on your part you will lose the patients. hence the importance of being multi-lingual

and yes i also understand it all depends on your patient pool and how diverse (or not) you want it to be.

 

[fancymylotus]

yes but the marketing & PR people are not working on the patients. without proper communication skills on your part you will lose the patients. hence the importance of being multi-lingual

and yes i also understand it all depends on your patient pool and how diverse (or not) you want it to be.

no i know i was just being bratty.being multilingual definately helps 🙂

 

[Euphoria36]

no i know i was just being bratty.being multilingual definately helps 🙂

silly girl! 😛 😀

 

[RT0223]

trilingual, love to learn spanish...

Because many dentists don't speak Spanish, they usually love to hire someone they can help them to translate. IMO, learning Spanish is essential.

 

[Denticized]

Trilingual none of which is Spanish so I guess not much use for my superpowers

 

[ecuajedi]

Spanish and English here. Definitely think it would be a good help in any part of the country nowadays.

 

[fajitapita]

English and farsi, I know quite a bit of spanish too, not enough to make me trilingual. Salam bruinpredent.

 

[DentalBoarder]

is this a undergrad spanish class requirement or will this be fulfilled during 1st year dental school

it'll be fulfilled during dental school. it's one semester.

korean and english here. little bit of spanish.

 

[byutah]

I know japanese and english but i'm not planning on doing anything with the Japanese. Maybe if i ended up in Seattle or San Fran or something I could try to cater to the Japanese population but I highly doubt it. Oh well, too bad I don't speak spanish!!

 

[blue_moon01]

I'm fluent in Vietnamese and English and is currently learning Spanish, Italian, and French.

 

[plasticsoul]

Not fluent, but good enough in spanish & german.

 

[NewYorker20]

Not fluent, but good enough in spanish & german.

Fluent in 4 languages and taking Spanish now...so far it helped me a great deal! and spanish-speaking population is soooo big in NYC.

 

[OrangeStorm]

I am bilingual as well. However, since I am living in FL, my Chinese is pretty much useless. For the matter of fact, English is my 2nd language, so I wish when I apply, the admission committee will take consideration of it. I really want to learn another language. Spanish is definitely helpful here, but French sounds lots cooler to me. I couldn't decide which one to learn.

 

[flyermann1]

Trilingual!😀

 

[Lemming]

Anyone know if you have any chance to study second language in D-school, cause I can read spanish ok, but I suck conversationally. Would love to get better.

 

[abzirian]

Korean and English here - trying attain fluency in japanese in tokyo right now.

 

[fancymylotus]

hrm...someone teach me farsi! i can do hindi, and urdu because of the hindi,but farsi sounds different.grmph.

 

[bruinpredent]

hrm...someone teach me farsi! i can do hindi, and urdu because of the hindi,but farsi sounds different.grmph.

get me a plane ticket to NY and i'll teach you all the farsi you want 😀

 

[fancymylotus]

get me a plane ticket to NY and i'll teach you all the farsi you want 😀

ill wait till you get an interview in NY😎

 

[earthcap]

bilingual, Korean and English.

 

[nazeeuh]

i'm fluent in urdu and hindi, but i dont think that's gonna help me much haha. i know a little spanish, too.