Taking a Spanish Course

[droshan]

I know if I get into a school this year I only have 8 months till school starts. However, I really want to learn Spanish mainly for my career but also because it does help a little for admissions. I want your opinion on how to learn it best. I have some basic Spanish speaking skills from 4 years I took in high school but nothing really since then. I know the best way to learn is to live abroad in a spanish speaking country but that isn't possible for me. I was thinking of taking it at either a community college or at UCLA. Does it really matter which school i go to (to the admissions committee and quality of learning)? Would it be ok to take a course online? If you know of a good way to learn in Los Angeles on the westside please let me know. Thanks for the advice.

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[ChemEngMD]

I know if I get into a school this year I only have 8 months till school starts. However, I really want to learn Spanish mainly for my career but also because it does help a little for admissions. I want your opinion on how to learn it best. I have some basic Spanish speaking skills from 4 years I took in high school but nothing really since then. I know the best way to learn is to live abroad in a spanish speaking country but that isn't possible for me. I was thinking of taking it at either a community college or at UCLA. Does it really matter which school i go to (to the admissions committee and quality of learning)? Would it be ok to take a course online? If you know of a good way to learn in Los Angeles on the westside please let me know. Thanks for the advice.

This may sound dumb but the computer program, The Rosetta Stone, actually works wonders. I already speak Spanish (I'm Puerto Rican and I took it in high school), but I fired up the Rosetta for Arabic and was able to learn a lot really quickly. It's just something you have to stick with and do every day because it works by immersing you within the language. I even did the last level of the Spanish version and I learned some new things. It sounds dumb, but if you're simply trying to learn the language and not have some sort of course to put on a transcript or something I highly recommend it.

 

[Valvool]

If you feel you cannot cram another thing in over the course of the next eight months, then don't. Some of my classmates are taking college-level Spanish (auditing the course) as their required first year medschool elective. But, it is possible to learn Spanish even once you've begun medschool through a program like Rosetta Stone. One does have a bit of free time, especially during first year. You may be able to find a clinic in which you can volunteer where many of the patients are Spanish-speaking....its not a stretch that you could find a bit of time during medschool to polish up your Spanish.

 

[Perrotfish]

Spanish school in Peru, Argentina, and Chile:

www.ecela.com

You need to be done with interviews before you go, but if you go you can definitely be fluent in 8 months. There are similar schools in all other South American countries, as well as Spain.


If you have the money but need to stay in country, Berlitz or a similar course. http://www.berlitz.us/web/html/content.aspx?idTemplate=2

It's pretty much an immersion course in the US. Executives use it when they need to learn the language in a hurry. Pricy, though.


If you're both poor and homebound: rosetta stone.

 

[ChemEngMD]

Spanish school in Peru, Argentina, and Chile:

www.ecela.com

You need to be done with interviews before you go, but if you go you can definitely be fluent in 8 months. There are similar schools in all other South American countries, as well as Spain.

Mannnn the last thing you want to learn is Peruvian, Argentinian, Chilean, or Spainiard Spanish If you want to be able to speak with your clientelle here in America you got to be able to speak the gritty stuff lol

 

[Perrotfish]

Mannnn the last thing you want to learn is Peruvian, Argentinian, Chilean, or Spainiard Spanish If you want to be able to speak with your clientelle here in America you got to be able to speak the gritty stuff lol

No idea about Spaniard Spanish, but South American Spanish is pretty standardized these days. It's the television that does it: it's infected the rest of the South America with Mexican Spanish the same way the US television has taught everyone on the planet American English.

Also, even before that happened, companies were sending their employees to Peru to learn Spanish. Peruvian is considered the closest thing to the universally intelligable Spanish accent adn dialect. Chile and Argentia are definitely a little more difficult to understand.

Finally, you're not going to be speaking to your patients in their native slang. Your patients will know how gringos speak/hear Spanish and they're going to be working with you to get the point across. Trust me that if you're fluent in any form/accent of Spanish you're fluent enough for a patient trying to make him/herself understood.

 

[ChemEngMD]

No idea about Spaniard Spanish, but South American Spanish is pretty standardized these days. It's the television that does it: it's infected the rest of the South America with Mexican Spanish the same way the US television has taught everyone on the planet American English.

Also, even before that happened, companies were sending their employees to Peru to learn Spanish. Peruvian is considered the closest thing to the universally intelligable Spanish accent.

Finally, you're not going to be speaking to your patients in their native slang. Your patients will know how gringos speak/hear Spanish and they're going to be working with you to get the point across. Trust me that if you're fluent in any form/accent of Spanish you're fluent enough for a patient trying to make him/herself understood.

Not true man. If you speak Spainiard Spanish nobody is gonna understand you. I have family members and friends (and myself) who are fluent and have to watch movies from Spain with the subtitles on because it is so different.

 

[bodonid]

How about during med school? Is it futile to try to pick up some Spanish if I've already started? I just wonder when I'll have time, if I don't do it now.

 

[ChemEngMD]

How about during med school? Is it futile to try to pick up some Spanish if I've already started? I just wonder when I'll have time, if I don't do it now.

If you're committed you can pull it off. I dated a girl whose father was an Oncologist and he taught himself Spanish and Portugese through med school and residency and then continued through as he became an attending (he's pretty decent)....and last I knew he was teaching himself Russian. If you've got the passion and dedication you'll be able to pull it off

 

[Sangria]

How about during med school? Is it futile to try to pick up some Spanish if I've already started? I just wonder when I'll have time, if I don't do it now.

I think that at most schools students can arrange to take Spanish or medical Spanish


Too bad you said that going abroad is not an option, it really helps, especially if you're living with a Spanish-speaking only family

 

[droshan]

If you're committed you can pull it off. I dated a girl whose father was an Oncologist and he taught himself Spanish and Portugese through med school and residency and then continued through as he became an attending (he's pretty decent)....and last I knew he was teaching himself Russian. If you've got the passion and dedication you'll be able to pull it off

Wow that is impressive. I think I'm going to take a class at UCLA extension once a week for 3 months for intensive review. I'll definitely continue throughout medical school and beyond. I just think it would be so useful to be fluent and not have to ask others to translate. I wish I could go abroad!!

 

[dally1025]

look around for a medical interpretation class or a clinic that caters to a hispanic population (if you already have a strong background). developing fluency in a language is not something you can realistically do without complete immersion, especially spanish. the regional dialects can be killer and there are a number of words that are used frequently in normal conversation in one country but are vulgar in the next (ie i learned/used the word coger regularly ecuador but i found out the hard way that it's quite vulgar in mexican spanish).

i agree with vasca about watching tv/movies-i watch as many movies as i can (anything with gael garcia bernal is going to be good... love him!!! the simpsons are great in spanish, i love homer's voice!). i also listen to spanish radio stations, and read/watch the news in spanish . to keep up with my conversation skills, i made friends that are native speakers. i teach an english as a second language class for beginners, most of whom are latinos, and they've helped me with my spanish a ton. i learned the language by living abroad and although i'm by no means fluent i can carry on a conversation and get my point across. although taking classes helped my grammar it destroyed my accent. i came back from complete immersion abroad to listening to non-native speakers 9 hours a week and my somewhat decent accent was destroyed. since i graduated i haven't spoken to many non-native speakers so i'm slowly improving my accent (for some reason people mistake me for italian and not american...). reading spanish really helped me form phrases and learn grammar. i'm slowly making my way through all the harry potters in spanish and now i'm not so bad with the prepositions!