Terminé el nivel dos de Fluenz español!

Voy a tratar a escribir en español. Entonces voy a mostrar las palabras nuevas que uso en rojo.

El nivel dos está terminado! Cómo lejos estoy ahora? No muy lejos pero me siento bien que terminé otro nivel. Pienso que estoy mejorando mi español. Hace tres semanas no fui a poder escribir mucho en español. Ahora puedo escribir más. Mi objetivo está muy lejos, pero un día pienso que puedo llegar allá.
Escuchar, hablar, leer, y entender en español. Un día si trabajo mucho, no?

Cuándo voy a poder hablar que yo puedo hablar mi mente en español? Cuándo voy a poder escuchar a the average Spanish speaker y poder entender? No ahora, verdad. Cómo cerca estuve en la idioma de aleman? Estuve cerca. Communicating and understanding direct speech was no problem. Movies, news, and newspaper was still really tough. I had broad strokes of understanding in those situations but I knew my limitations. I didn’t push myself in those things, though. Although the hospital experience in Germany was not a complete waste of time, it certainly was more time than I should have spent in that setting. What lost potential. I think I am working smarter with Spanish now than I did with German. Fluenz provides a nice roadmap that did not exist 16 years ago.

Pienso que puedo pedir comida en un restaurante, hacer una reservación en un hotel, alquilar un auto, comprar cosas, y conseguir direcciónes. Muy práctico! También puedo hablar en el tiempo preterito y la futura. Puedo hablar algunos sobre anestesia. No puedo hablar sobre familia, pero el tema no es práctico.

I think I have a good idea about a Spanish learning course. First, medical Spanish seems to be taught as a collection of phrases. Second, medical Spanish courses seem to assume that you have studied Spanish to the intermediate/advanced level. Fluenz does a nice job of showing you that you can learn to speak and communicate very practical things rather quickly. You don’t need all the conjugations/ tenses right away. Fluenz starts with two basic locations, the restaurant and the shopping center, and it continues to complicate the language, grammar, and scenario as one progresses. Why not do the same in the healthcare context. Why not progressively complicate the scenario of identifying the patient with chest pain? Other scenarios include taking care of patients on the med/surg floor, in the OR, and in the office. To mix up the pace, one can go out to lunch with the office staff, interact at home, or go shopping for office supplies. Learning Spanish in these scenarios will be immediately useful for the healthcare worker. The goal is to learn learn the language, rather than learning a few yes or no questions and phrases. I imagine that maintaining a meaningful, practical context, will hook the learner to continue with a program and feel less frustration.