Medical Spanish Mix and Match: Easy Spanish for Health Care Professionals

by Murnez Blades

Overview

Through fun, music, and action, Medical Spanish Mix and Match provides health care professionals with effective tools to communicate in Spanish with your patients. Relying on more than forty years of teaching experience, author Murnez Blades shares simple, direct methods to learn medical Spanish.

Using this program, you can learn to greet and part effectively, extract the information you need from your patients, and further develop your Spanish-speaking skills. This guide presents lessons to help you be courteous to your patients and to begin communicating immediately. It includes

• practice exercises and answers;
• bilingual tables for mix-and-match sentence building;
• a bilingual clinical history structured for yes/no responses;
• a bilingual intake exam;
• bilingual translations in word groups for further language acquisition; and
• conversations using first-responder questions.

Chapters also include information on communication, respect in Hispanic culture, and the nature of learning. Medical Spanish Mix and Match can help you find satisfaction in making effective contributions to the health care delivery system through communicating in the language of your patients.

“This book makes learning medical Spanish easy and fun. I can now communicate effectively with my patients.”
—Judy Hayes, RN

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491717387
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/27/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

Read an Excerpt

Medical Spanish Mix and Match

Easy Spanish for Health Care Professionals

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By Murnez Blades

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2014 Murnez Blades
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-1736-3

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CHAPTER 1

Why You Should Use This Book

Welcome

This book provides you with effective tools to communicate in Spanish with your patients. Read this chapter to help yourself use these tools more successfully. This information on communication, respect in Hispanic culture, and the nature of learning will make it easier for you to learn Spanish and speak it with your patients.

Learn to greet and part appropriately; to extract the information you need from your patients; and to further develop your Spanish skills.

Your Goal Is Successful Communication

Have you ever heard or said, "I studied Spanish for years and couldn't speak a word"? Or have you decided that it is too difficult to learn Spanish because you are too old and children learn better and faster?

The solution is simple: Communication, not perfection, is your goal! Make communication your goal and learn Spanish in the same manner as children learn it. Your result? Successful communication in Spanish.

Communication and Language

The majority (90 percent) of your communication is nonverbal. Of this, 30 percent is your intonation, and the remainder is body language. Your words represent only 10 percent (some say 7 percent) of your communication!

Success with Nonverbal Communication

Do you realize that babies are always communicating with you through body language? Children hear and understand before they can speak. The baby may slap at the bottle or push it away. If uncomfortable, the bebé cries.

Success with Verbal Communication

Young mothers today use sign language to communicate with babies as young as six months of age. At a party I attended one weekend, a young mother, having just fed her baby, intuited and confirmed via sign language that the baby just wanted the chupete (pacifier) and not more food. Sign language, an aspect of body language, created successful communication. As a result, both Mommy and baby were happy.

Your patients will be equally happy and appreciative if you communicate with them in Spanish, however simply. Like communication with babies, you will begin with simple expressions—one word or phrase. Your efforts will be immediately rewarded with a smile or a gesture. Wow! This person cares about me enough to try to communicate, the patient says to himself or herself.

Why You Want to Use Spanish

Despite the fact that many native speakers bring an interpreter or that you may have one, your efforts to communicate are a powerful, heartfelt message: I care about you! The respect that you will give your patients through your efforts will be invaluable.

Immediate Success with This Book

This book's goal is to teach you to communicate with a few clear words. To succeed, you keep your communication simple.

Why? If you use too many words, you may miscommunicate. Or your listener may believe you understand everything and overwhelm you with a barrage of words.

In this book you will use simple, direct methods to learn medical Spanish. No complex grammar rules. No memorization of verb conjugations. You can use this book to be courteous and begin communicating immediately.

Learning Methods Determine Learning Success

How We Adults Learn

We adults focus on perfection. We write the answers. We worry what others will think. We are inhibited about responding. We memorize vocabulary in a straightforward, boring way. We worry about what we do not know instead of paying attention to what we are learning.

How Children Learn

Children learn language faster than adults do. Why? Children employ a variety of learning activities. These activities include right-brained, creative functions that imprint on the left brain.

• Children sing songs, which opens both brain hemispheres. The rhythm imprints the words, pronunciations, and sentence patterns into the children's memories.

• Children play learning games, which provide repetition and fun. Repetition puts facts into our memory and builds useful habits. Fun relaxes us so that we learn new information and skills more easily and quickly.

• Children use vision, touch, and action to learn vocabulary. They identify pictures, touch body parts, and act out verbs. In this way they directly connect words with the physical reality.

Children are absorbed in the activity that produces language learning. All their energy goes into that activity.

Results of Learning Methods

The following diagram illustrates how different methods of learning determine how much language we remember after twenty-four hours.

After twenty-four hours, we remember 90 percent of all words that we see, say, and hear while speaking Spanish. That is why we learn best by speaking aloud while we read and touch the words and while we stand up, walk, and/or tap while saying the words. This is the reason that you will learn Spanish more easily and quickly if you always follow the practice directions in this book.

Learning Methods in This Book

You are going to learn the way our children learn—through fun, music, and action.

Why Fun?

Our attention and energy are naturally drawn to fun activities, and learning requires our attention and energy. Fun is an instant reward that motivates us to repeat the activity, and repetition assists learning. Fun relaxes us and dissolves fear and self-criticism. Our comfortable engagement makes our minds open and flexible. We naturally learn more and learn it more easily.

Why Music?

In chapter 14 of Eric Jensen's Brain-Based Learning, we learn that both sides of the brain are involved in processing music. The pulse of the body (heart rate) tends to synchronize with the beat of the music; the faster the music, the faster the pulse. Music relaxes the learners and stimulates the limbic region of the brain that affects long-term memory. This combination of language with music dramatically increases motivation and learning. Many of us have heard of the "Mozart" effect.

Because music is so useful in enhancing our learning process, the CD Spanish for Fun and Forever was created to add fun and interest to your learning experience. The lyrics to the tracks on this CD are presented in chapter 5. Why Action?

Using physical actions to learn Spanish is based on the strategy of Total Physical Response (known as TPR). This is a right-brained approach to second-language learning. It was researched and popularized by Dr. James J. Asher, professor of psychology. "TPR (total physical response) is a method of teaching language using physical movement to react to verbal input in order to reduce student inhibitions and lower their affective filter. It allows students to react to language without thinking too much, facilitates long term retention, and reduces student anxiety and stress. In order to implement TPR effectively, it is necessary to plan regular sessions that progress in a logical order, and to keep several principles in mind."

Methods Used in This Book

With the TPR method, you first respond physically to commands, which most students enjoy doing. Then you develop a large vocabulary and become comfortable speaking through practice. Thus, in this book, you will use the following:

• Music and TPR to learn basic vocabulary

• Visual/touch method to learn additional vocabulary

Next, you will learn to communicate with the mix-and-match method as follows:

• Learn a few basic patterns and begin to manipulate them.

• Work in pairs to practice some basic conversations.

• Practice structuring your own communication.

Respect for Native Healing—Curanderismo

What Is "Curanderismo" and Why Do I Need to Know about It?

A curandero or curandera (native healer) is the cultural and spiritual community leader who knows the curative powers of many plants. Spanish-speaking clients visit him or her for help with physical, emotional, and spiritual problems. Therefore, your patients may fear doctors and unfamiliar equipment and practices. A wise English-speaking caregiver speaks respectfully of the curandero, which helps gain the patient's confidence.

Often, patients are taking natural herbs given by the curandero. These medicines could be contraindications of prescribed medicines and may cause a lethal reaction. In order for the patient to feel confident enough to disclose all medicines taken, the physician must gain the trust of the patient by being respectful of his or her beliefs.

Native healing (curanderismo) is a diverse system that incorporates "el don" (the gift) from God with methods handed down by the ancestors. Methods from Native America, Spain, Mexico, and Africa are included. Most healers believe that they are living channels of divine energy and that they are able to increase the health and well-being of the client.

Healers believe that illness comes from an imbalance in the mind that affects the body. Intense emotions caused by trauma (e.g., divorce or an accident) or a specific event (e.g., fire, earthquake, or car accident) could cause such an imbalance. Anxiety accompanied by symptoms such as insomnia, diarrhea, extreme nervousness, sadness, depression, and loss of appetite would be treated with herbal medicine, massage, and prayer.

"In Western medicine the body goes to the hospital, the mind to the psychiatrist, and the soul and spirit to church. In curanderismo, the healing takes place under one roof," says Elena Avila, a psychiatric nurse specialist, curandera, and author of Woman Who Glows in the Dark.

How to Use This Medical Spanish Book

Read each section and do its practice exercises, in the following sequence:

1. Learn Spanish pronunciation and greetings.

2. Learn Spanish vocabulary for the content you need to use.

3. Use the two-part and three-part tables to communicate in Spanish.

Use the Mix-and-Match System in This Book

Sentence beginning + action word + sentence ending (as needed)

To comment or question, use these tables to create a sentence that contains two parts (beginning + action word) or three parts (beginning + action word + ending). Use an ending when needed in your sentence or question. Following are three-part and two-part examples. (Note that, combined with the infinitive, favor de is the equivalent of the English please. This structure is an alternative to the direct command form and is not only more polite but also easier to use.)

Mix-and-Match Benefits

• No verb conjugation

• No grammar

So how do you learn to communicate quickly, without memorizing many forms for each verb? You use simple, clear communication. For example, to communicate, "Please eat now," you say, "Favor de comer ahora."

This approach is built into the tables in this book. Then you can mix and match words from the table columns and communicate immediately, clearly, and simply. (Note: Many Asian languages use a similar system as in the mix-and-match tables. They do not alter verbs to indicate the subject or time of the action.)

Compare the simplicity of using the mix-and-match tables to communicate with the traditional emphasis on grammar as shown in the following table.

CHAPTER 2

Preparing to Speak Spanish

Why Learn Correct Pronunciation?

Saying Spanish word sounds correctly is an important part of communicating clearly. Your patients will appreciate understanding you immediately as you speak. They will be able to focus on what you are telling them instead of struggling to figure out what you are saying. Their understanding of your words will simplify your communication with them as you treat them.

Your Reward

You can review an intake exam in Spanish with a patient as soon as you master Spanish pronunciation using this chapter.

Important: Use These Exercises!

This part of learning Spanish requires lots of repetition because you are building new pronunciation habits. Your tongue and mouth need the practice to become comfortable making these new sounds. Your mind needs the practice to automatically think in Spanish sounds. Repeat this pronunciation practice daily until you automatically pronounce these Spanish words correctly.

Be Successful

If you have five minutes to review a letter section, practice speaking the words. The more you practice, the more relaxed and fluent your pronunciation will become.

Consider each practice session a little game. Decide to enjoy it, and you will. The fun you experience makes your new pronunciation habit easier to remember and to repeat.

Be pleased with yourself for each practice session you do. You are creating a stronger Spanish toolset for yourself each time. Approval of your own efforts builds your self-confidence in speaking Spanish words, and your increased self-confidence makes it easier for you to communicate clearly with your patients.

Pronounce Spanish Vowels

The vowels in Spanish are always pronounced the same way in every word in which they are used.

a (ah) as in father

e (eh) as in met

i (ee) as in keep

o (oh) as in open

u (oo) as in tool

Directions

1. Slowly say each vowel sound in the preceding list, and notice how you open your mouth and shape your lips to say the vowel.

2. Speak each vowel at a normal pace, still paying attention to how you use your mouth and lips. Continue for a minute or two.

3. Now tap the table for emphasis as you say each sound slowly, repeating the list.

4. Tap the table and say a three times.

5. Tap the table and say e three times.

6. Tap the table and say i three times.

7. Tap the table and say o three times.

8. Tap the table and say u three times.

9. Speak a, e, i, o, and u loudly for a few minutes.

Practice the vowels by combining them with a few consonants, as in the following chart. Start with the B row and repeat with the other rows.

• Speak the sounds in the row at a natural pace.

• Did they sound like the words below them? If so, good! If not, repeat the sounds until they do.

• Speak the sounds in the row at a quick pace three times.

• Speak the sounds in the row repeatedly.

• Change the sequence of the sounds in the row.

Pronounce Spanish Consonants

Some consonants in Spanish have different sounds than they do in English. Note: Bold syllables indicate where the natural emphasis falls.

Directions

1. Read the letter and its description. Say the consonant sound.

2. Say the Spanish example.

3. Speak the example several times as you touch the word.

4. Say the example and touch the word.

5. Tap the example as you touch the word.

6. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each letter in the table.

7. Speak each Spanish example five times.

Practice Spanish Pronunciation

Note: Bold syllables indicate where the natural emphasis falls. Directions

1. Read each of the following letter sections aloud.

2. Speak the example words.

3. Tap the example words.

C has two sounds.

Ca, co, and cu have a hard k sound, as in "cap."

• Cadera (ka-deh-rah) = hip

• Córnea (kohr-nay-ah) = cornea

• Cúspide (koos-pee-day) = cuspid, top

• Curar (Ku-rahr) = to cure

Ci and ce have a soft s sound, like the c in "city."

• Cintura (seen-too-rah) = waist

• Celular (say-lou-lahr) = cellular

G has two sounds.

Ga, Go, and Gu have a hard sound, as in "gap."

• Gástrico (gahs-tree-koh) = gastric

• Gordo (gore-dough) = fat

• Gota (go-tah) = drop

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Medical Spanish Mix and Match by Murnez Blades. Copyright © 2014 Murnez Blades. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Chapter 1: Why You Should Use This Book, 1,
Chapter 2: Preparing to Speak Spanish, 9,
Chapter 3: Pain and Medical Objects, 19,
Chapter 4: Mix-and-Match Sentence Tables, 43,
Chapter 5: Practicing with the CD, 75,
Chapter 6: Using Questionnaires, 115,
Chapter 7: Explaining Procedures, 131,
Chapter 8: Written Practice, 141,
Chapter 9: Using Spanish Numbers, 159,
Chapter 10: Using "Hace", 165,
About the Author, 169,
Notes, 170,