Does this sound familiar?
“One of my toughest times as an expat, was when my kid got sick, and I couldn’t explain to the doctor what was wrong. I really wished someone could’ve been there to help translate and make things easier.”
One of the most stressful times for any mother is when your child gets sick, especially when it’s your first baby and you have no prior experience with children.
That was me, actually, and this is the story of how I overcame the challenge of not being able to explain accurately what I wanted to say to my baby’s doctor when I lived in Germany.
My story
I was 28 when I had my first baby and we were living in Frankfurt at the time.
As a new mom, I didn’t know anything about babies. None.
(Note to self: Make sure my kids, both girls and boy, have experience caring for babies and children before they have their own. If they choose to have them, that is.)
Due to past family traumas, I was also terrified of everything. (Families, right?)
Every new sound the baby made, I’d run to the doctor to see if everything was okay.
My German was ok, but I still couldn’t accurately express what I wanted to say. It frustrated both me and the person I was talking to—my baby’s doctor, in this case.
Once, the last time I went to see him, he was extremely rude and dismissively told me that my baby was fine (he really was), that I was the problem, and to leave because he had “more patients waiting with real problems.”
The waiting room was empty when I left.
I promised myself I’d never go back to him and decided to find an English-speaking doctor.
A Spanish-speaking one would have been much more difficult to find, so I settled for English.
I eventually found one, and it was great to be able to speak my mind and express my worries.
But his office was miles away from our house. I had to take the subway and then the bus to get there. It was an hour-long trip each way for me.
It was a nightmare.
Even though this doctor was good, the logistics were very difficult, especially after I had my second baby.
Thinking back, it was then when I decided to make an extra effort to talk to doctors in German, just to be able to go to doctors closer to my house.
What I did to speak with the doctor
So what I did was take 10 minutes before each pediatrician visit to think about what I wanted to say and write down the key words, phrases, and verbs I needed to use to make my point clear.
The result was that after 3-4 times of doing that, I had already acquired the phrases and words I needed for doctor visits.
In time, I stopped doing that and things came out naturally.
I didn’t have to think about what I wanted to say anymore.
When I realised that writing things down before an appointment worked, I started implementing it in other situations, work included.
"What's in here for me?"
I have more tips like this to help you improve—or learn more—Spanish every day, on-the-go.
I have a webinar coming up on September 4th, and it’s free and it’s for you, because you deserve to be more independent here.
You can sign up here:
Or get more information here:
Webinar Tips to practice Spanish Landing
