Year off before med school

[SweetRain]

I'm thinking about taking a year off before med school to intern abroad. I'm from another country in Asia where we didn't need to learn Spanish at all so my Spanish is about Sesame street level.
But I really see the need of it now that I live in the states but I had no time to fit in Spanish class into my schedule. So I'm wondering if there's a way for me to work at a US based non profit organization in Spanish speaking countries during my year off and learn Spanish. I am pretty quick at learning new languages when I'm actually surrounded by it. I came to the US not knowing much English but I was able to pick up a lot of it within a year or so.
Do you have any suggestions?

ps- I'm not taking a year off during college. I want to do a deferred admission if I get accepted anywhere.

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[deleted316655]

I honestly think that taking spanish isn't necessary to live in America. I am sure it would be useful, but I wouldn't recommend taking a year off just to learn it.

 

[armybound]

your school should offer spanish courses, or you could buy some type of medical spanish teaching kit.

I wouldn't defer an admission for something like learning spanish. I do think that taking a year off is great, but I wouldn't defer for it. Either take the year off and apply later or go straight through.

 

[chrisski]

It is true that some people speak Spanish in America, but it is by no means necessary to learn. If you really want to learn a useful language I recommend that you travel abroad to San Marino, or another similar country, and learn Esperanto, a language which is an absolute necessity for American life. I sometimes wonder why its not a pre req.



http://www.esperanto.net/info/index_en.html

 

[MrCheetah]

If you really want to learn Spanish properly, the best and quickest way is to live in Spain or South America for awhile. This way, you're forced to learn. Teaching English should earn you enough to get you by.

 

[Ravendown]

really, you'd just be wasting your time. You don't need to learn spanish. you'll pick it up eventually. In addition some schools may offer medical-spanish classes, short classes that teach you the basics that you may need to communicate the important stuff in spanish. A few students in my school actually set this up for us.