After clicking through a friend’s Facebook pictures from a trip to Spain, I’ve began thinking again about doing one of my clinical internships in the country. I know Columbia has a Medical Spanish elective, so hopefully that will be a big help for me. In high school, I excelled in five years of Spanish classes and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad in both Spain and Chile. I immensely enjoyed my time in both countries and the experiences instilled in me a lasting love of traveling.
(A picture I took in August 2005 of the Royal Palace in Madrid)
I haven’t practiced my Spanish recently, but hopefully I’ll be able to speak a little bit in my new neighborhood next year. I think that studying abroad would help solidify my ability to speak Spanish as a PT the way no course alone can. From all my traveling, I truly believe that there is better way to learn a language than by immersing oneself in it. I also remember how much perspective I gained studying abroad. Before traveling to Spain and learning about their parliamentary democracy, it had never occurred to my 17-year-old self that democracies could exist without the two-party system in America.
I hope that similarly, being able to study in Spain will give me never before thought of perspectives on the health care system. Not to mention, the need I have previously blogged about, for Spanish-speaking PTs in American hospitals.
I realize I have a while to go before I start figuring out my clinical internships, but it’s never to early to begin thinking about them.