learning Spanish during med school....

[Hopkins2010]

Has anybody tried to become somewhat fluent in Spanish during med school? I've never taken Spanish before and want to learn. Not just broken medical Spanish either, I'd really like to be conversational in it.

Have any of you tried to learn Spanish while in med school? I know it will be tough to do while also handling stuff like biochem, anatomy, physiology etc but I think its super important to know Spanish nowadays, even if you end up practicing in the Midwest.

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[UCMonkey]

Is there a major Spanish speaking population in the midwest? I'm from California, where I know firsthand it would come in handy. I took 3 years in high school, but that's 5 years ago now. How about it med students - can it be done?

 

[BeckyG]

Our classmates (who are fluent in Spanish) have created a group that meets once a week to practice Spanish skills. There are two "groups" - one for advanced and one for beginners. There was no formal classs offered, so the students made their own class. Maybe you can start something like this a your med school.

 

[WSUreds]

I have taken Spanish for the past 9 years of my life. 5 in high school, including 8th grade and all 4 years in college, it is my minor. I really strongly believe that speaking spanish will be of great importance in this century. No matter how you look at the situation the diverse Hispanic population in the United States is increasing at a tremendous rate. Even the conservate midwest, ie ohio, the hispanic population has increased vastly. I suggest that anyone interested in Spanish become involved and participate and practice. That is the only true way you will acquire the language.

 

[jdub]

baylor21,
during the summer of your first year of med school it probably would be posible to do some research or intership type thing in a spanish speaking country, granted it would only be 3 months, but with some prep and basics down, you could probably advance quite a bit. also, get a book and some tapes or something to get down some of the basics and start watching univision or listening to spanish speaking radio stations. best of luck with your spanish speaking endeavors.

 

[AJM]

I took 2 quarters of Spanish on our undergraduate campus during my 2nd year of med school. I found that to be definitely manageable, although I think your ability to do something like this would depend a lot on your med school and curriculum.

Many schools offer a "Spanish for med students" course that typically meets once a week, and focuses on Spanish used in the clinical setting. Those are more popular with med students because they're not as time-intensive. However, you might not get much out of that kind of class if you don't really have a background in spanish.

I actually started out taking the class for med students, then switched to the undergrad class, mostly because I wanted to be able to get a basic understanding of the language and conversation rather than just learning medical phrases. The Spanish that I took was by far the most worthwhile course I've taken -- I use it almost every day in clinics. If you can, you should definitely try to take a course in it. If it proves too difficult, you can always drop it.

 

[BeeGee]

Taking a course between the 1st and 2nd year would be pretty cool. But, that IS your only summer to do a research project or summer program so why not do one in a Spanish speaking country. That was a great suggestion. Pretty cool vacation too. How do you feel about the Medical Spanish CD's? Might be good for learning on your own time. I'm in my 3rd year and some of the residents make a point to teach me a couple of new phrases every day so it might be a good idea to become better friends with some of your Spanish speaking classmates.