Spanish or an East Asian language?

[Lizzi]

I intend on applying to Stanford, and they encourage applicants to be knowledgeable in Spanish or an East Asian language. I figure Spanish would be a better choice for more practical reasons (I live in California, and I want to practice here), but because I took French in high school and college I find it difficult to retain Spanish now. I automatically want to switch to speaking in French. My pronunciation in Spanish is terrible too and I am afraid that if I take a language course I will do poorly. I think it is because the languages are so similar yet they are not. I would learn an East Asian language , but my parents are afraid that because they are too different from English or French that I would be setting myself up for even more difficulties. Do medical schools really care what additional languages someone knows?

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[jochi1543]

EALs are much more difficult and take a much longer time to become fluent in than Spanish or French. I took 4 years of Japanese (along with a study abroad in Japan), and I'd say I speak/read it as well as I speak German after 1.5 years. I wouldn't go into an East Asian language thinking it'd be easier than Spanish.

 

[odddodo]

I think you'd be better off if you stuck to your strengths. It sounds like you're trying to learn a new language just for the sake of strengthening your application. If that is your main motivation, learning a new language is going to be very tough. Of course, if you actually learn enough to eventually communicate with Spanish-speaking patients and colleagues, that'll be a plus...but are you willing to commit to learning Spanish for the rest of your life?

 

[littlealex]

Forget other people. If you think Spanish will be more useful, learn that.

 

[Summer Sweet]

I intend on applying to Stanford, and they encourage applicants to be knowledgeable in Spanish or an East Asian language. I figure Spanish would be a better choice for more practical reasons (I live in California, and I want to practice here), but because I took French in high school and college I find it difficult to retain Spanish now. I automatically want to switch to speaking in French. My pronunciation in Spanish is terrible too and I am afraid that if I take a language course I will do poorly. I think it is because the languages are so similar yet they are not. I would learn an East Asian language , but my parents are afraid that because they are too different from English or French that I would be setting myself up for even more difficulties. Do medical schools really care what additional languages someone knows?

I'd go with Spanish, because you're more likely to use it since you live in California. East Asian languages are extremely difficult (well, for me at least). I've heard people say that learning Chinese is a big thing for the future since China's going to play a larger role in global economy, but they also have two versions of the written language now. There's traditional and simplified Chinese. Simplified is used more in China now, but most schools in the US still teach traditional because that is what the teachers learned.

 

[StevenJ128]

I took Chinese my freshmen year, and it was damn hard. I spent more time studying chinese every night than I did all of my other classes combined.

 

[smq123]

I'd go with Spanish, because you're more likely to use it since you live in California.

There are also a LOT of Chinese people in California....not to mention Koreans.

I intend on applying to Stanford, and they encourage applicants to be knowledgeable in Spanish or an East Asian language. I figure Spanish would be a better choice for more practical reasons (I live in California, and I want to practice here), but because I took French in high school and college I find it difficult to retain Spanish now. I automatically want to switch to speaking in French. My pronunciation in Spanish is terrible too and I am afraid that if I take a language course I will do poorly. I think it is because the languages are so similar yet they are not. I would learn an East Asian language , but my parents are afraid that because they are too different from English or French that I would be setting myself up for even more difficulties. Do medical schools really care what additional languages someone knows?

Spanish will help your application but ONLY to certain locations and ONLY if you can demonstrate actual competency in the language. Just having 2 semesters of Spanish on your transcript will not affect your standing in the adcom's eyes. (They probably won't even see it - everyone takes 2 semesters of Spanish nowadays, apparently.)

I had a lot of Spanish-related ECs on my application - I did an internship in Spain, I was a Spanish-language exchange partner, I had helped out as a translator in various situations, I volunteered with a local Hispanic church, etc. The only place it helped was University of Texas, San Antonio, and only because I had demonstrated (via my ECs list) that I truly knew Spanish outside of a classroom.

When Stanford says "knowledgeable," they really mean fluency/competence. If you feel like you have enough time and motivation to learn Spanish to that level, go for it. If not, don't worry about it - spend that time polishing your app and working on your MCAT score.

 

[smq123]

I had a lot of Spanish-related ECs on my application

Oh yeah, and in my PS, I talked about translating for a British couple that had had their wallet stolen while vacationing in Madrid. I think that may have driven home the point to the adcoms....

 

[capn jazz]

I am probably the exception to the rule. I took Italian for 3 years and Japanese for 3 in HS and I'm starting intermediate this fall. I NEVER EVER got the hang of Italian and would never remember the vocabulary because it was too similar to English. Japanese, on the other hand, makes perfect sense to me grammatically and I love writing it so I pick it up very easily.

Also, studying a non-Indo-European language will open you up to a whole host of new ways to format speech than studying another Indo-Euro language, which is really interesting in and of itself.

 

[mdm2fly]

It's funny listening to non-Koreans try to pronounce or say something they learned in Korean. Most of the time, I can't understand them because they just don't have the ear for the language. On the other hand, I've also been shocked by people who speak to me in Korean almost fluently when they're obviously not Korean, and it's funny in a very different way. If you think you'll be the former, don't learn an EAL. If you think you can be the latter, go for it, because it's definitely very impressive.

 

[Ookluh]

I work as a tech in an ER in Southern California... and I can tell you that, without a doubt, there is a need for Spanish on a daily basis. In fact, I would be surprised if any doctor in our ER did not encounter on a daily basis a patient who speaks only Spanish. Asian language? I think there has been one time that I know of in the past six months, and it was a Cambodian family - not considered East Asian.

 

[littlealex]

Just a note: Chinese is nearly impossible to pickup past the critical age. Most people who learn Mandarin as a second language past the critical age never learn to distinguish between the different accents competently. Sure, many learn to speak it, but it is very difficult for native speakers to understand them.

They speak their own brand of Mandarin much like Jamaicans speak their own brand of English.

 

[deforestasian]

I've taken 3 years of mandarin and 1.5 years of Spanish, and I actually found mandarin to be easier in terms of grammar (note: my mother speaks fluent mandarin and so does her family so I have more exposure to it than some people, but I did not learn to speak it from childhood), but that might just be because I learned a Spanish as a third language and started to mix mandarin into spanish which made things more difficult.

I would say that mandarin is harder to learn if you have had very little exposure to it, but it is very useful if you are located in a strongly Chinese area (at least in my experience).

 

[Perrotfish]

Thinking beyond getting in to medical school:

My experience as a Pediatrician in California (during my civilian rotations) is that, at least as a medical student and resident, you will be forced to speak Spanish whether you actually speak it or not. Translators technically exist, but actually you're expected to round on a patient every 20 minutes and the translator takes 2 hours to arrive for anything that's not emergent (for a resident, students don't get them at all). You are functionally on your own. Residents cobble their daily notes and H&Ps together from whatever they can understand. I have seen residents come in knowing no Spanish, who were forced to do entire histories using nothing but the two dozen words they picked up in the first few weeks of Residency and hand gestures. I have picked up Spanish speaking patients from less fluent residents and have found enormous chunks of their histories missing because there was no one on the team who could understand anyone in the family (did anyone notice this child has a liver transplant, is homeless, this isn't actually his guardian, etc?). And of course I have seen countless examples of Residents using any relative, however young, as their makeshift translator (are you SURE the 5 year old is translating 'menstrual pain' correctly?). Its horrifying how much you are forced to rely on a language you don't necessarily know.

If this is where you want to work then for your sake, and for your patients' sake, learn Spanish. If you're having trouble getting the accent don't do less, do more. Do an immersion program (I did www.ecela.com but there are dozens like them). Do a study abroad for a year. Do Rosetta Stone every day. Do anything except take Chinese.

 

[The Buff OP]

It's necro bumps week here on SDN.

 

[Perrotfish]

It's necro bumps week here on SDN.

Crud, I totally missed that.

 

[The Buff OP]

Crud, I totally missed that.

No hay problema, amigo. A veces hay hilos muy viejos con buenas preguntas.

 

[mehc012]

No hay problema, amigo. A veces hay hilos muy viejos con buenas preguntas.

No mentiré, el consejo de Parrotfish en hilos similares en el pasado me convenció de buscar un programa de inmersión en Centroamerica...y es muy bueno que lo haya hecho. ¡Este es un ejemplo del tipo de necrobump que necesita pasar con más frecuencia!

 

[Practicals]

No mentiré, el consejo de Parrotfish en hilos similares en el pasado me convenció de buscar un programa de inmersión en Centroamerica...y es muy bueno que lo haya hecho. ¡Este es un ejemplo del tipo de necrobump que necesita pasar con más frecuencia!

"I won't lie, Parrotfish's advice on similar threads in the past have convinced me to find immersion programs in Central America. It's good that I've done so. This is a good example of the type of necrobump that needs to happen more often!"

Did I translate it right? I got confused with the subjunctive haber, so I don't know if that was right.

 

[mehc012]

"I won't lie, Parrotfish's advice on similar threads in the past have convinced me to find immersion programs in Central America. It's good that I've done so. This is a good example of the type of necrobump that needs to happen more often!"

Did I translate it right? I got confused with the subjunctive haber, so I don't know if that was right.

Yup! I'd tweak it a bit to sound more like normal speech (translations are always limited on that front) and buscar is more "look for/into" than "find" (encontrar) but for the most part, you nailed it!

And yeah, 'haya' is a weird one, but it's just subjunctive cuz the "it's good that" makes the following clause into an opinion.

 

[Practicals]

Yup! I'd tweak it a bit to sound more like normal speech (translations are always limited on that front) and buscar is more "look for/into" than "find" (encontrar) but for the most part, you nailed it!

And yeah, 'haya' is a weird one, but it's just subjunctive cuz the "it's good that" makes the following clause into an opinion.

I need to catch up on Spanish when I go to college next year XD! I was in an immersion program in elementary school and I took throughout middle school and 2 years of high school. I'd like to say I have pretty good pronunciation of the language, but I'm not conversationally fluent.

Sorry for off topic..

 

[mehc012]

I need to catch up on Spanish when I go to college next year XD! I was in an immersion program in elementary school and I took throughout middle school and 2 years of high school. I'd like to say I have pretty good pronunciation of the language, but I'm not conversationally fluent.

Sorry for off topic..

Meh, I'm not sure there's really a 'topic' on a years-old thread. I think OP will be fine with it!

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Learn Spanish because its higher yield.

 

[The Buff OP]

No mentiré, el consejo de Parrotfish en hilos similares en el pasado me convenció de buscar un programa de inmersión en Centroamerica...y es muy bueno que lo haya hecho. ¡Este es un ejemplo del tipo de necrobump que necesita pasar con más frecuencia!

我喜歡捲餅。

 

[mehc012]

我喜歡捲餅。

No fair, I know you habla some Español, I don't know ANY...I don't even know which language that is, though it appears Chinese to me.

 

[The Buff OP]

No fair, I know you habla some Español, I don't know ANY...I don't even know which language that is, though it appears Chinese to me.

Hahaha, I used Google translate. Search what it means in English though. Yeah, English is my second language, so I'm fluent in Spanish. My grammar sucks on it though.

 

[mehc012]

Hahaha, I used Google translate. Search what it means in English though. Yeah, English is my second language, so I'm fluent in Spanish. My grammar sucks on it though.

I figured (on the Translate)!

I knew you were Spanish as a first language, but I didn't wanna post it on your behalf. Some folks are (inconsistently) serious about their anonymity!

 

[The Buff OP]

I figured (on the Translate)!

I knew you were Spanish as a first language, but I didn't wanna post it on your behalf. Some folks are (inconsistently) serious about their anonymity!

I don't mind. For all they know I could be Black or Latino. LOL

My godmother is Haitian. Sak pase

 

[Cara Delevingne]

Chinese is by far the most commonly spoken language in the world. Learn an eastern Asian language. You'll thank me in 20 years.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

No mentiré, el consejo de Parrotfish en hilos similares en el pasado me convenció de buscar un programa de inmersión en Centroamerica...y es muy bueno que lo haya hecho. ¡Este es un ejemplo del tipo de necrobump que necesita pasar con más frecuencia!

^^^^realmente doe