Medical Spanish

[coleVT10]

I'm interested in learning Spanish to help with communication at work. Does anyone know the best way to do this? I've heard Rosetta Stone is very good for learning Spanish, but does anyone know if it covers medical terms? What are the other options out there?

[starmickey03, MSN, RN]

Ive actually heard that the Rosetta Stone thing isnt so good. They say that its good for basics, but actually LEARNING the language is impossible with a Cd-Rom. The Rosetta Stone cant correct you if you pronounce something wrong and Im pretty sure it doesnt cover anything medically related.

It would be best to enroll yourself in an actual class to learn the language. Your local CC could be a good place for this. And depending on where you live (especially somewhere in TX,FL,CA, etc) there could possibly be plenty of language learning programs outside of a college. Good Luck!

[Music in My Heart]

If you really want to be proficient with the language, you should take at least two semesters of college-level Spanish (not conversational). To that you should be aggressively seeking out opportunities to converse, read, and listen to the language on a daily basis.

To that, you should add a decent Spanish-English medical dictionary. I really like 978-0-7817-5011-0

If you're looking for something before you can get enrolled in a class, I can recommend the Pimsleur audio system. It's not nearly enough by itself but does help to build your ear for the language.

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

We were talking about this last night at work. My podmate bought it and said it's okay for conversational Spanish (but forget the different dialects) but didn't help a bit medical wise.

[RebeccaV]

I would say take more than 2 years of the language. I took 4 years of Spanish in HS and 2 in college. I graduated college 3 years ago and am now going back for my nursing degree, but I barely remeber any Spanish, Id take at least 3 semesters of it

[opensails]

there is a book ive seen that is specifically for medical spanish, focusing on keywords. even if you cant say a whole sentence grammatically correct, you would have the right vocab to step in the right direction.

[caliotter3]

I just bought this book, ISBN 0-7817-5011-3, and intend to practice with my Spanish speaking client. I managed to converse with my previous client that knew no English. When I get a chance, I am going to take up college Spanish classes again.

[SpanishConsultants]

In 9 years of experience teaching Spanish, I have never met anyone who has learned to communicate in Spanish by using Rosetta Stone.If you want to be able to communicate with your Spanish patients I agree with the previous comments. You have to enroll in Spanish classes.

[clow77]

Try Rocket Spanish! It's a pretty decent online audio Spanish course with some medical spanish. Although I didn't really learn that much medical Spanish from it, it helped me a great deal in learning at least the body parts. I got by with some of my Spanish speaking clients as a CNA fairly well with it.