Hello dear readers! I’m hoping to spend several months abroad in a Latin/Central/South American country getting my Spanish up to proper fluency standards, as well as volunteering and seeing the world. I’d appreciate any recommendations for programs if you’ve got them!
This is a medical weblog--a collection of thoughts about medicine, medical training, and health policy--written by a fifth-year medical student.
I recently stopped blogging, as I graduated from medical school and I'm now a physician in my residency training in New York City. But feel free to read and enjoy!
(To get rid of this thing, just wave your mouse over it. Ta da!
If you’re looking to solely increase your proficiency in Spanish, you could spend time volunteering in Miami, FL. You could also get out AIESEC: http://aiesecus.org/students/joinaiesec.aspx
I’m a medical student from Chile and I think you would like this country. It’s kind of interesting the mix between the latest technology and “latin american” medicine. And it’s a really nice country to visit!.
Check the programs in Universidad Católica for exchange students.
Here’s where I went:
http://www.road2argentina.com/
Although this Web site is targeted at medical librarians (of which I am one), it has a fantastic list of resources for folks who want to learn Spanish. Check out Polyglot, which is specifically aimed at medical Spanish.
Doctors Without Borders is having a recruitment presentation this Friday (Nov. 9th) in San Francisco:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/volunteer/recruitment.cfm
Graham,
Can’t wait to see where this leads you – because I’ve spent a few months in Central America working on my Spanish and plan on beginning medical school next fall (with going back to CA regularly as a long term goal).
If your ‘general’ Spanish isn’t where you want it to be, I highly recommend Casa Xalteva in Grenada, Nicaragua. I can even recommend a homestay (if you’re interested, shoot me an email).
Please do keep us updated on this. I’m green with envy.
Ryan
Graham,
To brush up on your Spanish, you should definitely give Rosetta Stone software a shot. It’s expensive, but well worth the investment. Give their website a hit: http://www.rosettastone.com/.
And as far as perfecting your Spanish, you won’t find Spanish spoken more purely than in Arequipa, Peru. Los Arequipenos son muy claro. Their tongue in Arequipa is crisp. They don’t have an accent (think Washington D.C. between New England and the South), they speak quickly enough, and there are plenty of people who will train language lessons with you. If you find a program in Arequipa or decide to just check the place out during your travels, let me know. I have uber contacts there.
You might look at PaceMD near Guanajuato, Mexico. It’s close and receives positive reviews. http://www.medspanish.com/id5.html
My school’s program is here:
http://www.uag.mx/medicine/medical_spanish.htm
I can’t speak for how good it is or isn’t for what it offers, but knowing a few students here that took it because they knew no Spanish before getting here, I’d definitely say that it’s what you put into it, because the immersion is there. The ones who said they got a lot out of it are the kind of students who you know put forth effort in general with their studies; the students that I know that said it wasn’t worth it (nobody said it sucked outright) weren’t exactly “go-getters” in general.
Your “face time” with patients comes from community clinics, so you’ll have plenty of practice time (usually, the pts don’t have to be anywhere in a hurry), and some of the clinics could be rural. However, you’d be in the 2nd largest city in Mexico, so there’d be no shortage of things to see/do in your offtime. Check into the housing/boarding options, because that would be my main caveat.
Pop Wuj, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Combines learning with social projects such as woodstove building, helping at an orphanage.
http://www.pop-wuj.org/index.php