learn to speak spanish

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 17, 2002

Does Sylvan teach spanish hissy?

renerian

NurseWeasel · Dec 18, 2002

I'd like to join Fab4Fan in saying that you really need to be sure what you're saying and that it's appropriate for the situation, before you blurt it out. Slang can be a tricky thing.

One time I *thought* I knew what I was saying but didn't realize the exact nature of the implications... the situations in which I'd heard it made it seem like it meant "really big ouch", when in fact it was a rilly baad swear word, lol.

I said this word as I was empathisizing with a hispanic patient and the poor old lady about fell off the exam table, she was laughing so hard. When she finally caught her breath she very kindly explained to me what I'd said and all the social implications, and why it was inappropriate for the doctor's office. :blush:

Make that one lesson learned very well, lol.

prmenrs, RN · Dec 18, 2002

Another thing you can have some fun with---get a children's book in Spanish. I've seen 'Green Eggs and Ham' in Spanish. You already know the English version, so you can work on figuring out how the language is constructed to get the same results. Also, you can practice reading it out loud, and work in pronunciation and fluency.

One day at work, I was trying to explain to some parents how their baby was doing. After a few minutes, the dad looked at me and said, "We could do this in English, if you'd like." I just howled!! "Just how long were you going to let me make a fool of myself??!!" Every time I saw them after that, we'd just laugh, and I'd offer to practice my Spanish on them for a while!

emily_mom · Dec 18, 2002

Do you want to learn it for your nursing? If so, http://www.nursesdigest.com has a set of tapes or something for learning spanish. I think it's only 35 bucks...

Kristy

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2002

All good suggestions and thanks so much!

renerian

CountrifiedRN · Dec 18, 2002

Great suggestions! I learned a little spanish when I lived in California, but not enough to be totally fluent. I knew a lot of spanish speaking people at work and would often practice my spanish on them.

I also want to emphasize the need for caution when you're not sure about a word. One day I said "Tengo caliente", instead of "Tengo calor" - I was trying to say "I'm hot", meaning the temperature because the air conditioning system was broken. It does mean hot, but not as in temperature! :imbar My co-workers got a good laugh out of that one.

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2002

lOl that is so funny! I will proceed with caution!!! Thanks again everyone for your tips!

renerian

sanakruz, ADN · Dec 18, 2002

Kristy- That link sent me to some domain name place

Perhaps "Yo mucho retardo en el interneto"

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2002

LOL I am guessing that means you are retarded LOL and cannot find it on the net ??????????Am I off.......psychnurse?

renerian

Angelica · Dec 19, 2002

About 30% of my pts are spanish speaking only, so I am eager to bridge the gap (I am a nursing student). I took the lazy way. I bought myself a PDA for christmas and downloaded Mobilearn spanish for health care professionals. It has about 400 common phrases. When you find a relevent phrase you can speak it yourself or press a button and have a native voice speak the phrase. I'm pretty impressed so far. When I finish school I hope to devote more time too actually studying the language.

jdomep · Dec 19, 2002

I was thinking about doing this one online

http://home.universalclass.com/i/subjects/languagestudies.htm

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 19, 2002

Wow nice link. I am checking it out now. Thanks Julie.

renerian