Will being Trilingual help?

[frenchie11]

I am fluent in French, Spanish, and English and I was wandering whether the admission officers would take this into account. Will this feature distinguish me a lot from the other pre-med applicants? Is there a higher chance for my acceptance to med school due to the fact I speak three global languages?

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[hp540]

I also juggle and spin plates. Someone please tell me this will help?

To seriously answer your question, sure it never hurts to know an extra language or two (both for yourself and for applications)...but lots of people are bilingual or trilingual. Sooo...

 

[AmoryBlaine]

All talents are positives, it's not going to carry you but of course it will help.

 

[xpinchx]

There's no way a medical school will let in anyone who speaks french.

 

[Meatwad]

Spanish = Helpful
French = no one will care

Unless you are applying to McGill, speaking French will probably just look like another thing to tack onto the CV, whereas speaking Spanish will actually be looked at as a major positive skill that you possess. Not many French people that don't speak English rushing into American hospitals these days. There are a lot of Hispanic people that don't speak English, though.

 

[Polynikes]

I am fluent in French, Spanish, and English and I was wandering whether the admission officers would take this into account. Will this feature distinguish me a lot from the other pre-med applicants? Is there a higher chance for my acceptance to med school due to the fact I speak three global languages?

No, this will definitely hinder your getting an acceptance...

 

[deuce924]

I don't think you being trilingual is going to wow them away. It is something unique about yourself. Plus like previously stated, speaking spanish is very beneficial in today's society.

 

[Daydreamer2008]

I am fluent in French, Spanish, and English and I was wandering whether the admission officers would take this into account. Will this feature distinguish me a lot from the other pre-med applicants? Is there a higher chance for my acceptance to med school due to the fact I speak three global languages?

It's definitely something to talk about during interviews. I'm sorta trilingual with my 3rd language being German, and at a recent interview I was asked about it, so I explained about my family who lives there blah blah. Just a conversation starter 🙂

 

[WurangBlang]

Spanish def. helps for cali med schools. I wish i could speak Spanish. I speak fluent in Korean, but i don't think that would help me much.

 

[Meatwad]

Spanish def. helps for cali med schools. I wish i could speak Spanish. I speak fluent in Korean, but i don't think that would help me much.

There's large Korean communities in California, and I'm sure plenty of the older people don't speak English very well. In that case, your flunecy in Korean would be very helpful, and well as lucrative for your future. You can market yourself as one of the few doctors that understands the community and can converse with them in their language.

Now, if you had said you spoke Finnish, well, then you'd pretty much have a useless language there.

 

[ScienceJunkie]

Spanish def. helps for cali med schools.

if you speak the convoluted, corrupted version of "Spanish" (if you can call it that) of the Latino community, then yes.

if you know Castilian Spanish (Spain Spanish), then it's going to bit a lot more difficult (image a deep-south guy speaking in ebonics trying to communicate to a very proper Oxford-trained British doctor...yeah...it's not going to happen)

 

[Pinkertinkle]

A little.

 

[Meatwad]

How mutually inteligible are French and Haitian Creole? If quite a bit so, then your speaking French would be an asset in parts of NYC.

 

[HickMD]

I speak three languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese). How I learned Portuguese is much more interesting than how I learned Spanish, but everyone asks me about Spanish only. So, play up the Spanish. They want to hear if you have used it in clinics, hospitals, etc.

 

[smq123]

Spanish = Helpful
French = no one will care

Unless you are applying to McGill, speaking French will probably just look like another thing to tack onto the CV, whereas speaking Spanish will actually be looked at as a major positive skill that you possess. Not many French people that don't speak English rushing into American hospitals these days.

You don't live in a place with a lot of West African immigrants do you? Penn actually has little need for Spanish speakers (this may change in the next five years, although I wouldn't necessarily bet on that), and needs French speakers pretty badly. A lot of African immigrants in West Philadelphia speak French well, but do not know English (or Spanish, for that matter.)

Jefferson needs some Spanish speakers, but not all that many. If you can speak Mandarin and/or Cantonese, however, you will be the most popular person on your ER or OB/Gyn rotation. Chinatown is literally 4 blocks away, and we get a lot of pregnant women on L&D who do not speak any English.

So don't assume that Spanish is desparately needed at all schools. Research the area around the school first.

 

[Starry0916]

Where I live (NYC) there is a growing number of French speaking immigrants mainly from French speaking countries in Africa and such. So I think that any foreign language is a plus 🙂.

Spanish = Helpful
French = no one will care

Unless you are applying to McGill, speaking French will probably just look like another thing to tack onto the CV, whereas speaking Spanish will actually be looked at as a major positive skill that you possess. Not many French people that don't speak English rushing into American hospitals these days. There are a lot of Hispanic people that don't speak English, though.

 

[Meatwad]

You don't live in a place with a lot of West African immigrants do you?

No, I don't.

I did respond above, though, after giving a little more thought, and suggested it's similarity to Haitian Creole could be helpful.

 

[Meatwad]

Where I live (NYC) there is a growing number of French speaking immigrants mainly from French speaking countries in Africa and such. So I think that any foreign language is a plus 🙂.

I live out on the island... not many West Africans migrating here, though there are a lot of Haitians. Out of the 4 neighboring houses, 2 families are Haitian (the other 1 being hispanic, and the other house... well, they've been evicted and the stoop has effectively become a hangout area for the less savory individuals in the neighborhood).

 

[Blade28]

We previously discussed this topic here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=442962&highlight=bilingual

and here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=442451&highlight=bilingual

 

[lizz1702]

How mutually inteligible are French and Haitian Creole? If quite a bit so, then your speaking French would be an asset in parts of NYC.

if you speak french you will be comfortable communicating with and understanding haitians. my bf is french canadian and often engages in conversation with haitians down here in south fl. south florida is more of a cultural melting pot than a typical outsider may think (as well as many other places) so in my opinion, fluency in other languages is definitely an asset. i'm not sure that it will make or break you though.

 

[surfstarj]

so in my opinion, fluency in other languages is definitely an asset. i'm not sure that it will make or break you though.

Definitely, fluency in any language is hard to come by. showing mastery of more than one language is helpful and gives insight to your ability to learn and communicate. don't let people here tell you it won't matter; if it didn't, they wouldn't ask on AMCAS.

 

[Concordia]

If anything, it is not going to hurt you. I am bilingual and I emphasized that in my PS and during my interviews...showcase it as a useful characteristic. It's not going to be a decisive factor but it will distinguish you from other applicants.

 

[quiltlady]

My son speaks French, German and Norwegian, and has had occasion to use each of these in the hospital where he worked. You never know what you will need. His abilities in foreign languages were not a significant factor in his acceptance to med school

 

[BrokenGlass]

I am fluent in French, Spanish, and English and I was wandering whether the admission officers would take this into account. Will this feature distinguish me a lot from the other pre-med applicants? Is there a higher chance for my acceptance to med school due to the fact I speak three global languages?

If worse comes to worst (i.e. no acceptances), you can curse in 3 different languages.