My english is horrible !!!

[earthlovers123]

Hello all,

Some of the friends in all nurses are commenting that I need to improve my communication skills in English to do better in nursing school. I am a male nursing student from another part of the world (South Asia). I have a passion for nursing. But at the moment, I need some study skills, good English language ability to get through nursing program.

It would be wonderful if you could give me some suggestions to do better in nursing school. How to improve my English communication skills (oral and written) and study skills that I need to have for nursing school to be successful.

[z's playa]

You guys are totally missing my point. :chuckle

Z

[Sumatra]

Z, your point's well taken, but I was responding to the original poster who is already here in school. I would hope that all schools would require a decent score on an English proficiency test for admission. I would also suspect that anyone who got into school and couldn't use the language well enough to keep up with the curriculum would not finish the program. However, there are many ways to make adequate English even better, both for native and non-native speakers. :)

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

There are nurses at my hospital who make more mistakes and spelling errors than those for whom English is their second language - but somehow they think it's okay because English is "their language to butcher if they want to" but jump all over the nurses/nurse assistants who make a few minor spelling mistakes. This mentality burns me so badly!!!

Thank you !!! :Melody:

I couldn't agree more ! Not only the spelling, but the grammar used by many of "our own" is horrendous.

We certainly don't need to be throwing stones, or wondering how the "foreigners" can possibly get through nursing programs and past the professors, if we just look around at "our own"... I have often wondered myself how some were ever allowed to make it out of HS.. much less college.

And I'm not referring to the common typos we all are capable of making when sitting at our computers and typing in a hurry.. I'm talking about grammar and spelling I see every day in my community and sadly even at work.

Live and let live, I say. Let's look in the mirror first before we criticize others.

[Sis123]

Thank you, Sumatra for your most helpful post. I hope that the OP will take what you, as a professional, have written.

Exposure and use of the language goes a long way to help people absorb the feel for correct usage, and use is very good practice. Accent reduction is helpful mainly if the patients and other staff cannot understand what the OP is saying. Past tense and immediate tenses of words are absolutely important in determining what symptoms the patient HAD or HAS. "Little" things like this are critical in assessment of the patient.

I'd like to read what the OP thinks of these suggestions.

And thank you, Z's Playa, for being honest.

[danu3]

You guys are totally missing my point. :chuckle

Z

One can just use "Everyone" instead. For example, instead of "Hey you guys, let's play ball." one can have "Hey everyone, let's play ball."

Decades ago while I was in another school, my social linguistic class did a class project. It is to figure out the semantic shift of the phrase "guy" and "man". The theory being the word "man" is shifting from a wide connotation (both male and female) to a narrow connotation (male only). The word "guy" in some instance is going the other way from a narrow connotation (male only) to a wider connotation (generic).

Especially with the phrase "you guys", it was interesting. People from a foreign country have more problem using "you guys" to a all women group. Also people of the older generation have a similar problem. One of my friend's dad who is from a different country told me he understand you can use "you guys" in a generic way, he himself just can't use it that way.

Younger native US born females (our small samples are all West Coast) seemed to have no problem with it.

It was an interesting exercise as it make us aware that we are witnessing historical changes in semantic shift in words.

-Dan

ps. "wise guys" and "wise man" are very different in meaning...

[danu3]

Past tense and immediate tenses of words are absolutely important in determining what symptoms the patient HAD or HAS. "Little" things like this are critical in assessment of the patient.

There is actually another issue here. What about the English of the patient?

For example, "do you have pain?" and "did you have pain?" will most likely mean about the same thing to someone whose native tongue is Chinese and does not have much English exposure. The reason is that Chinese (and lots of other Asiatic languages) are not time conscious. You have this "timeless-genderless-numberless" mode of speaking and thinking while in English, there is no such thing. From a Chinese mind, English is obsessive with time and a few other things like gender and number.

So being aware of the culture of the patient, "do you have pain right now?" and "did you have pain before today?" is a lot more clear because that is how Chinese indicate time.

-Dan

[mommatrauma, RN]

LOL!!! I say "you guys" all the time. Sometimes I even say "Dude."

And I am 51.

But, I am definitely a CA girl, even though I now live in the Pacific Northwest.

Now, one of my teammates says "youse guys." I love it! She's from Jersey.

LOL..as soon as I saw your post I knew it was about an East Coaster...we like to use "youse"in Philly too...a sorta modified Cali...lol...we also like to pronouce our double "L" words as "W" ie call ya later...is really caw ya later...so don't worry too much about your spoken "English" as you can see those of us that originate from this country don't even speak the same languages...Haha... :rotfl:

[onefisher]

I too have worked with many that didn't have skills as good as yours appear to be. But if you insist, I would ask myself, specicifically, what area I felt weakest in and think about how to improve that the most. Writing, speaking, vocabulary, I can think of many ways to improve each of these areas... But like others have written, just going to work everyday is practice in itself!

Good luck! kf

[Maxs]

I am a foreigner and I have been in the United States for approximately five years now, my english is alright. DO I Have an Accent? well, whenever someone annoys me. First of all, Nursing school is not just about english. When the admission committee evaluates a candidate or an applicant, they look for more than just "good essay." And when it comes to spelling, English is 1/3 of the role that is Latin/Greek/English. The subjects that foreigners excel in the most are math and science which are beneficial towards your admission. Essays? you ever heard of error proff: Just write it out and take it to a professional who will dissect your personal statement into pieces. This is what most Americans and foreigner (who are aware of this) will do before submitting their applications. Nobody wants to take a shot at the admission commitee. You are wondering at nonsense, perhaps you should interview someone who has been a member of the admissions committee.

Maxs

[Teachchildren123]

HI! I have been there! I am from Quebec, where French is the primary language, my primary one. My mom sent me for an immersion year in english H.S. that last 2 months, because the kids were beating me up every day (you kkow when you are the outcast you get the bullies attention).

The only english words that I could understand then was yes, no and hamburger!!!

So, I finally came to the states, got a job as nursing home as an aide, was only talking english with my (bilingual) hubby,

trying to read the paper,

listening to the news with my dictionary nearby,

reviewing ER 1000 times (although I realize now how inaccurate the practices are in it,but I looked for abbreviations and diagnosis... that way),

started few classes at the time for my prerequisits for nursing and voila endend to be an ICU nurse.

That's how I learned English. It worked! I am just the ICU nurse that have an accent. Don't forget that people may judge you because of the accent thinking that you are "dumb", or that since you "can't speak like everyone else you must not be a great nurse, but don't waste your energy with the judging one.

Trust me, if I can do it, you can too!!! :) :yelclap: :cheers:

Start to do board questions now! Everyday, a few of them, get a good book with the rationales. You will get to learn by repetition.

Go get it!!! :balloons:

[danu3]

http://www.cnam.com/non_flash/language/american.html

Take a look at this documentary on "American Tongues". A good school library should have it. It is quite a facinating documentary as it is on different accents in America.

-Dan

[Deaconess]

Y'all is a perfect solution to the lack of a plural form of you in the English language. It's better than the irritating west coast version, which is 'you guys'... If I hear one more perky, bleached blond waitress say that, I think I'll puke...:angryfire

After living in Va Beach, I prefer "y'all" to the even more annoying "you's," heard in Northern New York State. Its like nails on a chalkboard!