[brian]

Iris Maldonado Davis was born on the United States mainland to parents who came from Puerto Rico, so she spoke English and Spanish at home.


As a registered nurse, her ability to speak two languages comes in handy at work.


Health-care providers, in order to care for growing numbers of Spanish immigrants showing up at hospitals and clinics, are making extra efforts to recruit nurses like Davis who are bilingual.


"I think it makes me very marketable," said Davis, who since October has worked on the Bon Secours Richmond Health System's Care-A-Van, a mobile health clinic. The van goes to different neighborhoods in the Richmond area. At some stops most of the patients are Hispanic, many who have not yet learned English.

Full Story: More Spanish-speaking nurses sought

[HARRN2b]

How difficult is it for an english only speaking American to learn spanish? I almost feel that I need to be thrust into the culture to learn as I am not sure I can learn it in a classroom.

[EricEnfermero]

Different people learn different ways. Sometimes a classroom setting with a good teacher is enough for a person to be able to get by in Spanish, but certainly the more practice, the better. If you're not able to go to an immersion program in a Spanish-speaking country, you might check out this link:

http://spanish.meetup.com

Meetup groups get together in various cities every so often to practice a skill or discuss a topic. Once you start learning a little, it might help you get some additional practice.

[Stopnik]

Hate to be a kill-joy, but without living in a country or some other form of deep, sustained immersion it is almost impossible to learn a language to a degree needed for work. Most spanish "meet-ups" are a bunch of Anglos sitting around speaking broken Spanish to one another...

[Reno1978]

In my personal experience, classroom instruction is great for learning grammar and spelling, but it isn't until you actually put the language to use in the real world that you get any benefit. I'm glad I had classroom instruction in the past, because it definitely helped me conjugate verbs and form my sentences correctly. However, getting comfortable with the language by speaking it to native speakers was so helpful to me. There are large Hispanic communities both where I was raised (Pasco, WA) and where I live now (Reno, NV) and I love to frequent the markets, bakeries, butcher shops, and restaurants where I usually have to speak Spanish to get service. I've been doing this for years and it has definitely built my confidence for speaking the language.

With that being said, it is a whole different story in the medical field. I wouldn't be able to explain a procedure or condition to a patient if I had to do it in Spanish. I just do not have that vocabulary...

[EricEnfermero]

To clarify, I don't think that a person can sit in class for a few weeks or go to a few meetups and be ready to translate consents or explain detailed procedures. Even so, nurses who deal with a high percentage of Spanish speakers can make their lives much easier with just a little vocabulary. You'll want to get help for the big stuff, but just being able to ask a patient if they're ok, thirsty, in pain, etc, will save a lot of trips looking for someone to interpret.