There hasn't been anything too exciting going on this weekend in Kansas. In fact, the big 'trip' I took yesterday was to the "Little Apple" of Manhattan, Kansas, for a Dental Spanish continuing education course. Three of the hygienists in the office went with me to attempt to learn how to communicate with our population of Spanish speaking patients. We probably have 2-3 patients a week in the office who speak very little English or none at all (and bring their son/daughter/nephew/friend/etc. to translate for them). This has gotten very frustrating for me since the only two phrases I knew before yesterday were, "Abra la bocha" and "dolor?". Apparently, those naysayers were right to tell me once upon a time that the seven years of french that I took would not be practical in the real world. Anyways, yesterday I learned enough to greet patients and ask where they had pain/problems and tell them what I saw and planned on doing. Now, if they actually talk back to me in answers of more than one or two words, then I'm totally screwed!
The course itself was great! It wasn't one of those that you just sleep through. The instructor made sure to keep it lively with several songs he made up using the dental Spanish terms. We sang these songs over and over and over again. And guess what?! They were sung to popular tunes that were very recognizable, like "Feliz Navidad," so that they would be forever stuck in your head! He actually had a guitar and we all had to sing along. I can just imagine an Hispanic walking by our conference room at the hotel and wondering why in the heck we were singing about cleaning, extracting, filling, and examining teeth. What a hoot! The biggest shocker of the day was when the instructor pulled out his teaching aid, an actual puppet that was named Pepe Garcia. I about died when he pulled it from behind his table. See photo below. Anyways, the 6 hour course and 3 hours total driving was worth it for the entertaining class and hopefully, I'll be able to communicate at least on a rudimentary level with my Hispanic patients!
1 comment:
Pepe Garcia? Sounds like an AWESOME baby name! Maybe, for a girl, it could be Penelope. You know that every time you hear the song "Feliz Navidad" you're going to change the words! Anyways, glad that you had an entertaining time!
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