No Hablo Español

Back when I first became a nurse in 1988, I did a lot of my clinicals in different backgrounds in hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, doctor’s offices, and nursing homes. As a new nurse, I was trying to find my "niche" and at the present, I was doing geriatric nursing in a nursing home. Geriatric patients have a lot of stories along with lots of wisdom to share if you are willing to listen? Nurses Announcements Archive Article

No Hablo Español

But what about patients that are so stubborn and will not give an inch to nurses who are really trying to please them?

I will never forget one little beautiful and a very old woman who had a Hispanic background. She never learned to speak English, as her family stated she was from the old country and had never desired to learn English. To help all the staff that did not speak Spanish, phrases like "are you in pain" "where does it hurt" "do you need anything" "are you hungry" and so on were posted on large pieces of paper that were hung over her bed. She apparently was fed up with doting South Georgia nurses trying to perfect their accents. Being from Hawaii, I too had an olive complexion. As I walked in, the patient seemed happy to see me, or so I thought for about one minute.

Trying to look like I knew how to communicate with this little woman, I took one look at the paper signs hanging over her bed and attempted to communicate with her. She all of a sudden got very angry and started yelling at me and motioning for me to get out of her room.

I had no idea what I had said or done wrong to upset her and proceeded to find someone who understood Spanish, hoping to make amends. After a nurse fluent in Spanish came to my aid and as I explained to her what had happened, I very quickly found out that nothing I had said upset her at all.

She firmly and honestly believed that since I was "olive complexioned as her" that I too should be fluent in Spanish, and nothing I could do or say could convince this little woman that I no hablo Espanol!

I had to be replaced by a nurse who spoke Spanish, and even though this nurse explained to her that I did not speak Spanish, she never believed her. I was not allowed back in her room and I certainly was not allowed to be her nurse.

Although I found this very interesting that she thought that complexion could dictate what languages I should speak, I did understand that with her age and beliefs that I was not able to convince her that I was Hawaiian and did not speak Spanish.

And here 20 years later, I still no hablo Espanol. Nurses just remember you can please some of the patients some of the time, but, no matter what you do; you CANNOT convince some patients of anything, no matter how hard you try!

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Private Peds Nurse

About Private Peds Nurse, LPN

23 years experience and works as a I do private Pediatric Nursing.

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I took up Spanish years ago and spoke it very well, but now I'm rusty since there really isn't that many Spanish-speakers in my city. I've been thinking about how I could squeeze in a non-credit Spanish class into my schedule this semester. Doing so would probably help me in the long run. Thanks for the article!

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

My babysitter's family took a trip to Hawaii; they are Hispanic. When they returned, they laughingly told me that everyone spoke "funny" to them. Turned out, the locals all spoke "pidgeon" to them, assuming from their complexions that they, too, were "local".

Whenever my mostly Filipino bro-in-law comes here, clerks in stores usually speak Spanish to him!

I guess we all make assumptions; too bad you were never able to convince her you were NOT Hispanic!!

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that happens to me often too,they right away assume i speak spanish

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I have the opposite problem - I speak fluent spanish, but I'm so NOT olive-complexioned that I have trouble convincing people of it! ;) LOL

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My babysitter's family took a trip to Hawaii; they are Hispanic. When they returned, they laughingly told me that everyone spoke "funny" to them. Turned out, the locals all spoke "pidgeon" to them, assuming from their complexions that they, too, were "local".

Whenever my mostly Filipino bro-in-law comes here, clerks in stores usually speak Spanish to him!

I guess we all make assumptions; too bad you were never able to convince her you were NOT Hispanic!!

All the Filipino nurses I have worked with have spoken at least some Spanish, English, and Tagalog. Look at the history of the Philippine Islands.

I know I do it, right or wrong, and I think many of us determine what languages others speak by looking at their appearance/complexion color/eye shape/hair texture and other external features, like hair color, length, style, and texture, lips, even height and buttocks size. No offense is meant. I'm just sharing my observations. Happy New year to everybody. Let's make it a great year.

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All the Filipino nurses I have worked with have spoken at least some Spanish, English, and Tagalog. Look at the history of the Philippine Islands.

First time I met someone from the Phillipines I knew they weren't Latino. However, when the started speakign Spanish to me thinking I was Latino I was shocked that they spoke Spanish. Of course, that was before I knew anything about the Phillipines ROFL.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

i don't speak spanish, nor do i look as if i should. i love mexican food however. i remember stopping at a mexican restaurant while passing through texas with my husband, whose family is from latin america. a couple of the waiters were apparently discussing the size of my chest in spanish, confident in their (correct) assumption that i couldn't understand them. my husband did understand them, and was not happy with the way they were disrespecting his wife. he made some anatomically impossible suggestions, and it nearly came to blows! now i sometimes ask him to "speak spanish to the waiter" before it gets that far!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

My Mom is Greek, my father from Maine with french ancestory. I can look southern european, arabic, Latin American depending on the time of year it is.

I learned racism from both blacks, whites, mexicans. Perception is a big thing.

One thing I learned thanks to the US. Army growing up as a kid and as a soldier myself, never ever judge a book by its cover. People may look a certain way, but once you start assuming things based on looks, peoples feelings get hurt, things get said that should not have been said and people get mad. Everyonce in a while I go to a mexican restuarant and dude assumes i speak Spanish. I took it in college and high school and travelled down south with the military. So I speak back in spanish, what the heck. One time for fun, I told a guy, No I speak American.

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i don't speak spanish, nor do i look as if i should. i love mexican food however. i remember stopping at a mexican restaurant while passing through texas with my husband, whose family is from latin america. a couple of the waiters were apparently discussing the size of my chest in spanish, confident in their (correct) assumption that i couldn't understand them. my husband did understand them, and was not happy with the way they were disrespecting his wife. he made some anatomically impossible suggestions, and it nearly came to blows! now i sometimes ask him to "speak spanish to the waiter" before it gets that far!

a similar thing happened with one of my friends. she was born in korea, adopted by an american couple as an infant. she started learning spanish early in life, as her mother taught english as a second language for the local school district. fast forward to age 20; she's going to college in washington, d.c. and working in a restaurant where most of the kitchen help spoke spanish exclusively. one afternoon on the bus, some young men were commenting (in spanish) on her anatomy, so she turned around and made a few "anatomically impossible suggestions" (i like that phrase, can i use it?) to them, using several of the latest vulgarities she'd picked up from her work friends. they all turned beet red and stammered, then wouldn't make eye contact with her for the rest of the ride. who expects a young asian woman to be fluent in spanish, complete with the local slang?

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I am not fluent but I do well enough to translate a fair bit. Being blond and 6 foot tall, I get some really odd looks when I walk in with a doc (who has come out to get me to translate). We both walk back in, he starts talking, people look at him blankly until I start translating, and they look at me like "where is that voice coming from?". I usually apologize when I don't know a word or phrase, and we all work at getting me to understand, and laugh a lot together.

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i work as an agency nurse and travel to many nursing homes. to my surprise 2 cna's approached me and asked me to translate. i said "translate what?" this combative spanish lady couldn't understand that they were there to change her during last rounds (11-7shift). i told them those three words "no hablo español."

of course i didn't ignore the situation i just did sign language resolving the issue. i think it was their impression because i'm brown, a pacific islander, that they thought i was spanish : )

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