Yet another thing that I want to dedicate a blog post to was
the language barrier. I knew that the majority of the people we were going to
be dealing with in clinics were going to be Spanish speaking, but I at least
expected there to be some English speakers. But alas, as the saying goes – the best laid plans of mice and men…
It was very difficult and sometimes frustrating because we didn't have many translators, and when we did have them, it felt a bit
disconnected; like I wasn't helping a patient directly. That did bother me a
bit, but I tried to make it feel a bit more connecting, for lack of a better
word, by looking at the patients while talking to the translator. Still, it was
very difficult and my four years of HS Spanish did little to prepare me, aside
from the basics like where it hurt, and when it happened.
I really wish that we had a mini-Spanish refresher course
about the basic phrases and words that we might have needed. Even if we couldn't hold conversations, at least we would've been able to somewhat
understand what they were saying, and respond accordingly.
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