Medical Spanish Workshop for Health Practicioners

“I’m a nurse, why do I need to know Spanish?” When you know Spanish, you increase your marketability if you are looking for work and your job security if you already have a job. For example, we conducted some research and found the following jobs that have Spanish preferred or required. For most of these jobs, you do not have to be completely fluent in Spanish; you just have to be communicative.

At our 2-day workshop, you will instantly increase your employability. We are offering a Medical Spanish workshop August 28-29 from 8:30-4:30 in Los Gatos, CA . Lunch and all materials are provided for the $195 registration fee.  At the workshop, you will learn how to:

• Conduct patient intakes
• Give treatment instructions
• Role-play typical scenarios
• Ask questions specific to your circumstances
• Use present, past, future and command forms of verbs

Certificates will be issued. Contact us for more information or to sign up.

Registered Nurse (RN):

1. https://jobs-genexservices.icims.com/jobs/4144/job?&sn=Indeed&?mode=apply&iis=Indeed&iisn=Indeed
2. http://hsccjobs.iapplicants.com/ViewJob-81579.html
3. http://career.staffingsoft.com/site018/asp/JobSeekerResults.asp?ClientId=ONL&sessioncompanyid=&refnumber=&id=84&Display=details

School Nurse:

1. http://edjoin.org/viewPosting.aspx?postingID=332483&countyID=43
2. http://edjoin.org/viewPosting.aspx?postingID=329697&countyID=44

Medical Receptionist:

1. http://www.hillphysicians.com/Providers/Pages/viewjobs.aspx?PageID=158
2. http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?ipath=EXIND&siteid=cbindeed&Job_DID=J8D5ZH73P7P96BXYW0F&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=566c12e3959845fc95b38ed0aad27745-333555041-R6-4
3. http://davita.taleo.net/careersection/10000/jobdetail.ftl?job=401020&src=JB-10382

Caregiver (CNA)

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?ipath=EXIND&siteid=cbindeed&Job_DID=J8H09Y70HPST8JQCH74

Medical Assistant

1. http://peoplemenders.com/SearchCareers/JobPostingDetails.aspx?id=7729&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed
2. id=7729&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed  https://sutterhealth.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=1156149&src=JB-15920
3. http://www.hillphysicians.com/Providers/Pages/viewjobs.aspx?PageID=143

Physician Assistant

https://www.healthcaresource.com/elcamino/?fuseaction=search.jobDetails&template=dsp_job_details.cfm&cJobId=949154&source=Indeed.com

Practice Assistant

https://sjobs.brassring.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_jobdetail.asp?sec=1&partnerid=6495&siteid=5226&jobId=1148095&type=search&JobReqLang=1&recordstart=1&JobSiteId=5226&JobSiteInfo=1148095_5226&GQId=0&codes=IND

How NOT To Be the Ugly American When Traveling

LEARN ABOUT SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL BEFORE YOU GO

Sustainable travel means acting as a conscientious tourist, careful with the environments you explore and respecting the communities you visit. Two overlapping components of sustainable travel are ecotourism and ethical tourism. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES)(www.ecotourism.org) defines ecotourism as respon­sible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people. TIES suggests that ecotourists follow these principles: 

• Minimize environmental impact
• Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation and for local people
• Raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climates
• Support international human rights and labor agreements

While much of the focus of ecotourism is about reducing im­pacts on the natural environment, ethical tourism concentrates on ways to preserve and enhance local economies and communities, re­gardless of location. You can embrace ethical tourism by staying at a locally owned hotel, shopping at a store that employs local workers and sells locally produced goods, and hiring a local guide whenever possible. Some other things to take into account are dress (in many countries, modest dress is important), behavior (asking permission before entering sacred places, for example), taking photos or video (always be sensitive and ask first), paying a fair price (not engaging in overly aggressive bargaining for souvenirs or short-changing on tips), and being careful about what you purchase (never buy crafts that may have been made from protected or endangered animals).

Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.com) is another good source of sustainable travel ideas. They even feature a carbon calculator on the site where travelers can calculate the carbon emissions from their flights and consider offsetting them by investing in carbon-reducing initiatives around the world.

–Taken from The Language Educator, October 2009, pages 16-17.

Habla Language Services’ Spanish immersion program to Costa Rica is ecofriendly. We really on locals for housing, cultural trips, and wherever else possible. Check out our page to find out more about learning Spanish in Costa Rica this summer!

Living and Learning the Language

This article was featured in the October 2009 edition of the Language Educator. It is by Janine Erickson, the President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. She advocates for travel to a country where the target language is spoken to really live and learn it. Keep this in mind when considering our trip to Costa Rica in August 2010. Come join in the language and cultural learning experience!

“Learning a foreign language is by far the most culturally enriching prospect available in our education system. Traveling to a country that speaks that particular language opens our eyes to the world. Using the language in the country where it is spoken, being understood, and blending in with the people and culture of that country are all experiences that are truly priceless!

Few experiences in life rival the academic, career, intercultural, personal, and social benefits of studying abroad. Struc­tured foreign travel and study in another country can provide many extraordinary opportunities and prepare us for the demands of the 21^st century in our increasingly multicultural world. The chance to fine tune indispensable skills through language immersion; to experience a country’s vibrant history, art, and culture; and to develop a fresh perspective of the modern world are some of the greatest benefits of a travel/study abroad experience.

In today’s competitive job market, foreign travel experience on a resume can speak volumes. Both outside and within the education field, employers value qualities such as willingness and readiness to adapt to new environments, an ability to look at a project or situation from different perspectives, an understanding of diverse cultures, and an ability to take risks. Distinctive personal characteristics such as independence, flexibility, and adaptability are developed and expanded through study abroad experiences.

Foreign travel experiences also have a positive impact on globalizing the teaching of world languages. To enhance the delivery of a complete world language study program, language teachers at all levels must have strong proficiency in the language and knowledge of the culture in addition to professional teaching skills. Given the importance in today’s standards-based curricula, brief foreign visits are a practical answer to the higher proficiency expectations placed on world language teachers today.

As one of its 10 federal legislative priorities, ACTFL endorses immersion and language study abroad as a key compo­nent of a well articulated and continuous sequence of language study. In a position statement regarding Study Abroad and International and Community Experience (May 2007), ACTFL asserts that going beyond our borders is critical for all Americans but essential for teachers of languages. The statement further adds that an immersion experience that focuses primarily on measurable linguistic and cultural gains should be a requirement of language teacher preparation programs. Furthermore, ACTFL encourages language programs at all levels to secure financial support and seek international interac­tion between students and teachers abroad, participate in exchange programs, and design service learning opportunities for students to connect with other cultures in their own communities.

Understanding the relationship between language, culture, and society in the teaching process is indispensable. Living the language through a study abroad program develops increased self-confidence in using the target language, helps us better understand our own cultural values and beliefs, influences interactions with people from different cultures, and reinforces our work as world language educators as it opens the doors to new ideas and philosophies.

Although you have just begun your school year, it is not too soon to include a study abroad experience as part of your professional development plan for next summer! Read what your colleagues have to say about their own experiences abroad and its impact on their approach to language teaching in the “So You Say” section in this issue of The Language Educator on page 56.

There is so much we can learn from the world around us. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to take advantage of any opportunities for extended study in a country where the language you teach is spoken natively. It will change your life and add to your teaching experience by shaping your own cultural identity and your view of the world. You will no doubt find yourself a more effective intercultural leader in our increasingly interconnected society.” -Janine Erickson, the Language Educator, October 2009, page 7.

An Interview with the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan

“Studies have shown that students who learn foreign languages in school actually realize other cognitive benefits that can make a difference in their academic career.” Arne Duncan is a proponent of language learning and exchange programs. Click here to read his interview with the Language Educator Magazine.

For Young Children, Two Languages Are as Easy as One

This article was featured in the October 2009 issue of the Language Educator. There was no autor cited (page 11). Consider teaching your child early. The more education your child receives between the ages of 0-5, the more brain development you promote.

European researchers are contesting the assumption that bilin­gual toddlers have more trouble learning language skills than children who know just one language.

“While the remarkable performance of children acquiring one lan­guage is impressive, many children acquire more than one language simultaneously,” says study author Agnes Melinda Kovács, a research fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies, in Trieste, Italy. “As bilingual children presumably have to learn roughly twice as much as their monolingual peers [because they learn two languag­es instead of one], one would expect their language acquisition to be somewhat delayed. However, bilinguals pass the language develop­ment milestones at the same ages as their monolingual peers.”

The finding, which appeared in Science magazine in print and online in July (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/325/5940/ 611), resulted from a test of the responses to verbal and visual cues from 64 babies who were 12 months old. They came from monolin­gual and bilingual families, although the study did not specify which languages the families spoke. The toddlers were exposed to two sets of words that had different structural characteristics. After each word, the children viewed a special toy on either the left or right side of a screen, depending on the word’s structure. They then were pre­sented with words they had never heard before but that conformed to one of the two verbal structures. No toy followed.

Researchers determined whether the infants had learned the word structures by measuring the direction of their gaze after hearing each new word. Judging by their eye movements, the bilingual kids did better in recognizing words than their monolingual peers.

“We showed that pre-verbal, 12-month-old, bilingual infants have become more flexible at learning speech structures than monolin­guals,” says Kovacs. “When given the opportunity to simultaneously learn two different regularities, bilingual infants learned both, while monolinguals learned only one of them.”

This means, she says, that “bilinguals may acquire two languages in the time in which monolinguals acquire one because they quickly become more flexible learners.”

According to the study, the cognitive pathways developed during the learning of two languages might make bilingual children more efficient in acquiring new information.

Language Learning on the Job – Language Educator August 2009

Because of the services that Habla Language Services offer, the Language Educator was interested in hearing more about how Habla LS reaches corporate America in their quest to learn Spanish. Click here  for the August 2009 edition featuring “Language Learning on the Job.”

Habla Language Services also offers ESL (English as a Second Language) for businesses and individuals.

Habla Language Services Featured in the Language Educator Magazine

My goal is to post weekly on Wednesdays. Sorry it’s been a while since my last posting. Sometimes life just happens. I will have a stock pile of postings to take us through to the end of the year. Make sure to share this blog with others interested in best practices for language learning and reaching the Hispanic market.

Click here for the April 2009 edition of Language Educator Magazine featuring “Using Languages in Health Care” and how Habla Languages Services helps chiropractors and others do that.

From Ridge to Reef

Check out this video directed by my Costa Rican partner Roy Prendas for WWF! When you participate in Habla Language Service’s Spanish immersion program in Costa Rica next summer, you’ll get the best of language, nature and culture! Save the dates:
Session 1: August 9-13, 2010
Session 2: August 16-20, 2010

http://hablals.com/learn-spanish/personal/costa-rica-immersion-program/

Learn a New Language – Why Not Spanish!

This article by Meina Kaleyah of Drexel University really caught my attention:

“I would like to blame geographic isolation for the fact that most U.S. citizens that are not of immigrant households do not speak any languages other than English. Fine, you can’t hone your German or your French, we get it – it’s all an ocean away. Regardless, just to the south of us Spanish, and not English is what is spoken. According to a report conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics, Foreign Language Teaching: “What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries,” the U.S. lags in foreign language proficiency because linguistic education is introduced too late, and our teaching force is not properly equipped. These conclusions should not come as a surprise. We can all recollect the nightmare and confusion of foreign language classes, so it’s no wonder why few bother to pursue the languages in which they once held interest. So, what do we lose from avoiding learning a foreign language?

In most careers, fluency in another language is highly valued, not only for what such knowledge indicates about the employee but also for business ventures, creating a scenario where expanding into a global market becomes viable. A study published April 2006 in the “Journal of International Business Studies” concludes that introducing employees that speak another language into the workplace actually cuts transaction costs that involve international clients. Previously, if an employee was multilingual, they were utilized merely for the translation of bureaucratic documents (e.g. questionnaires). Language and the associated ethnic conventions were segregated from the skill itself. Language is now an integrated strategy within corporations. Commercial culture has shifted in its perception of multilingual people. Possessing knowledge of multiple languages is associated with many valued qualities, such as versatility, perceptivity and cooperation. In the pre-twenty-first century corporate milieu, multilingualism would brand an individual as an expatriate of another country, the child of an immigrant, or European – no outstanding traits would be attached.

Employment aside, knowing another tongue brings introspective and social context to the individual. Anyone who is a first or second generation immigrant in this country can attest to this fact: speaking and speaking well is tied to enculturation. A common phenomenon in bilingual households is a dual persona, one for each language and culture. There is no wrong in it; simply, characteristics within our own personalities are punctuated in different ways in different cultures via the style we communicate.

A study published in the “Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching” illustrates the integral nature of culture within foreign language education. Miwako Yanagisawa followed students learning Japanese as a second language at the Tokyo Christian University in Japan. The study focused on the socialization of Japanese culture that was imparted along with the language. Students in the class who communicated effectively in Japanese shared a couple of common attributes. First, they understood their social context as non-Japanese, using it to their advantage. They also incorporated values and norms of the Japanese within their exchanges.

Two fundamental processes of language socialization were revealed: “socialization through the use of language and socialization to use language.” Proper knowledge of a language carries more weight than the ability to string a sentence together. We are assimilated into the culture, we assume different identities – we learn how to connect with people that may have been socialized in a fundamentally different manner. Learning a foreign language makes us global citizens.

My parents firmly believe in this notion of “global citizen.” Although I grew up in an Iranian household where Farsi was spoken, my parents wasted no time plopping me in yet another foreign-language environment at the tender age of four. For two years, I attended L’École Internationale Française de Philadelphie in Bala Cynwyd. To this day I am not sure what fueled this decision (why didn’t they get me a Spanish-speaking nanny?), but it certainly changed the course of my life intellectually. Though my French lay dormant for many years after I stopped attending L’EIFP, my high school French literature class reawakened my inner-Francophile. Labé, Baudelaire, Appollinaire – all their words moved me to tears.

I find that American literature often leaves something to be desired when it comes to poetry. As a Francophile, French movies and literature are my bread and butter. “Au Revoir Les Enfants” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” are two choice films that should not be overlooked. Frankly, even if you cannot speak another language, cinema is a great medium to introduce yourself to any culture. Do not be embarrassed that you cannot watch a movie en V.O. (in its original form); a great movie translates in all languages. Even if you do not have the time to sit down and get through that pricey Rosetta Stone program collecting dust in your desk, the arts are a great medium to take in another culture.

A refuge for the tired and poor is not just some archaic inscription on a plaque within the walls of the Statue of Liberty. As a country of immigrants, we frequently encounter those from other countries, daily. At the very least, we should watch some foreign films. However, there is no substitute for fluency in another language from your own. It aids in our world perspective and our ability to communicate with a variety of people, a well as adding a little kick to our résumé. Simply, a foreign language facilitates growth; when you stop growing and changing, you’re dead.”

Summer Spanish Classes for High School and Adults

High School: Habla Language Services hits the grammar books! Yes, we like to emphasize communication and manipulating the Spanish language without speaking it perfectly, but because it is summer and some kids want to get a head-start on high school, we are offering a special series this summer. We are going to do an introduction to Spanish 2. So if you have a teen who went through Spanish 1 and didn’t do so well. Or, who is entering Spanish 2 and knows s/he may not have much time to study, this is the class for your high schooler! We will cover what will mainly be covered in high school Spanish 2: preterite, imperfect, commands. Plan on meeting twice a week for 1.5 hours with homework. We will form a schedule that works for you. We are offering this class at a special rate for youth: $250 for 8 sessions that are 90 minutes. All materials are always included, but it helps if your teen has a bilingual pocket dictionary, electronic translator, or phone app for translating. Contact me now so we can get started within the next couple of weeks. (Classes are offered at my home in the Campbell area.)

Elementary: If there is enough interest, I will do a fun session for younger kids like learning through games and music! Let me know what you’d like to do!

Adults: The Spanish conversational series will be starting up again in the fall. Make sure you are ready with the basics. In order to participate in the conversational series, you need to know the following 7 competencies:

1. Numbers
2. Days of the Week
3. Months of the Year
4. Colors
5. Greetings and Niceties
6. Pronouns
7. Question words

Gear up now so you are ready to go in the fall!  I cover the 7 competencies in my basic 3-hour workshop. The first 2 people to indicate interest will get to select the date. I recommend a Saturday or Sunday because if you work a traditional work schedule, you will not want to attempt this class after a full day of work. Even though it is fun and dynamic, there is a great deal of information to learn and retain. I typically offer this workshop in my home in the Campbell area, but if there is a small group of people interested in another part of the Bay Area, we can arrange an alternate location.

You will be amazed at the innovative tools I have developed to tap into every learning modality: oral, visual, kinesthetic. My fifteen years of language teaching experience has enabled me to integrate theory into every practical application. I won’t bore you with the theory, but you will find yourself learning, speaking and understanding in a full-immersion 3-hour Spanish workshop.

Cost for the workshop is $95 and includes all materials and refreshments. You will go home with the tools needed to continue practicing at home and a full-color Spanish calendar!

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