Learning a 2nd language (French/Spanish)

[quickjab1212]

I have some extra time now, MS3, and have always wanted to learn a second language! For background, I'm interested in a US dermatology residency and spent considerable time building my CV early on, if that matters. I have time before I would apply.

I've tried spanish multiple times and lost interest, mainly learning it for the utility. I'm much more interested in french (culture, literature, arts), but I realize might not be as useful applying to a US residency.

Should I keep grinding spanish for the utility (would this be a major + to dermatology programs?), or pursue french - then perhaps learn some medical spanish through french later on in my career?

I appreciate the advice

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[Redpancreas]

It won’t help much. Do it if you want to do it for yourself.

 

[longhaul3]

Speaking Spanish is invaluable if you do your residency in any large US city or other place with a large Spanish-only population. Using an interpreter adds 5-10 minutes to any patient encounter. If you have 10 such encounters in a day, 6 days a week, speaking Spanish will save you a lot of time.

 

[Banco]

Spanish will have more utility, but you seem to want to learn French for your own personal reasons - so do that. Don't do this for how it looks for residency applications...

 

[M&L]

French will have if you practice in the community with a lot of African immigrants .

 

[Redpancreas]

Speaking Spanish is invaluable if you do your residency in any large US city or other place with a large Spanish-only population. Using an interpreter adds 5-10 minutes to any patient encounter. If you have 10 such encounters in a day, 6 days a week, speaking Spanish will save you a lot of time.

The problem's that it doesn't sound like OP has an advanced knowledge of Spanish. In order to serve as an official interpreter, you need to be certified. Also, as an aspiring multilinguist myself, it's very difficult to learn languages later through didactic processes. American culture is actually quite forgiving of accents/misphrasing in 2021 relative to Hispanic/French culture. Maybe glance at these interpreter requirements OP and see if this level of fluency is attainable for you. Otherwise, you can do it for fun but don’t expect it to make a big difference. You can either say you're native fluency or interpreter certified. Only those two will get you a brownie point on ERAS. I took IB Spanish in high school and took standardized reading comp tests in Spanish and took a year in college but there’s no way people will differentiate that from someone who thinks they’re advanced for doing a year of college Spanish. I was never asked about it on my interviews. I think everyone puts something since we all have to take Spanish, French or German in high school.

I think if we want to have people to really learn languages we have to start earlier like in elementary school. By high school, kids are too preoccupied with other things like who they’re taking to prom.

 

[quickjab1212]

The problem's that it doesn't sound like OP has an advanced knowledge of Spanish. In order to serve as an official interpreter, you need to be certified. Also, as an aspiring multilinguist myself, it's very difficult to learn languages later through didactic processes. American culture is actually quite forgiving of accents/misphrasing in 2021 relative to Hispanic/French culture. Maybe glance at these interpreter requirements OP and see if this level of fluency is attainable for you. Otherwise, you can do it for fun but don’t expect it to make a big difference. You can either say you're native fluency or interpreter certified. Only those two will get you a brownie point on ERAS.

Oh that's great information! That helps my decision, I will not likely attain that level of fluency/competency, more conversational in this first year or so. So I'll learn French, then Spanish as I become conversational.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[Redpancreas]

Oh that's great information! That helps my decision, I will not likely attain that level of fluency/competency, more conversational in this first year or so. So I'll learn French, then Spanish as I become conversational.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

If you can become certified in French that would give your application a boost I guess. Don’t worry about French not being as widely used. It’s still a major language with international cultural ties.