"Are you an American?" (Miami, Palm Beach: look for a job, live, safety)

[kevinkagy]

Originally Posted by big mean bear

The problem with this theory is that you have to be in an extremely nice part of Miami to only hear English and not Spanish. (Aventura, Deering Bay, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Miami Shores, and Fisher Island ) Even then, it's not gauranteed. Most middle class areas and ALL lower class parts of Miami are Spanish only. Other heavily hispanic cities such as LA and San Diego do not have this much Spanish language infestation into the middle class domain - you won't hear Spanish at all in a hospital let alone having it be the language of choice by a majority of the staff.

Current trends dictate otherwise.

Actually, Miami-Dade losed Hispanics by 3%, gained White Non-Hispanics by 2.5%, Blacks grew by 3% and Asians grew by 0.3% from 2000 to 2006.

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

learn Spanish? I am sure many people get annoyed at the whole "they need to learn English or speak English" in America thing. Besides, learning Spanish would be really cool I think. Makes you more marketable too, right?

OK, tap the breaks on that one. I do not want any nurse that just learned conversational Spanish, having anything to do with my healthcare, thanks very much.

I usually agree with you but this was WAY over the political correctness line. We're talking about life and death here

[intelfan11315]

Originally Posted by runswithscissors

OK, tap the breaks on that one. I do not want any nurse that just learned conversational Spanish, having anything to do with my healthcare, thanks very much.

I usually agree with you but this was WAY over the political correctness line. We're talking about life and death here

Actually, it does make you much more marketable, I have talked to many people who prefer spanish and they choose their doctors, dentists etc.. with the ones who speak spanish. They even told me they don't speak good spanish and can really only speak in present tense. Many times putting in the effort to learn will get you really far.

And yes, learning spanish is very fun.. and for the most part you really impress the people who are native speakers. For every one person who hates the fact, is 10 other people who get a big smile on their face and try to help you or talk a bit more slowly.

[runswithscissors]

OP you are wasting your time there. Flat out run don't walk....move further up to central or north FL It's not even worth the B.S. you'll encounter there.

As IF in freaking America now, we go to the hospital to get treatment or work and once AGAIN, our lovely new citizens REFUSE to speak English. And to add insult to injury asked by our fellow employees are we AMERICAN.

That pretty much says it all in a nutshell.

There's a serious disease infesting Miami Dade. If you don't have enough antibodies you'll catch it too.

Soon you'll be sporting a sarcastic license plate that says "Hispanics Discovered Florida", marching with flags from other countries and promoting the Miami Race Patriotic Agenda. You'll be participating in obtuse discussions about who's white, who's black, who's off white even , who's European or "more" European than the other one, degrading the lowly Mexican, Hatian versus African American, Cuban versus "all other", dialect differences, Portuguese versus Spanish, dogs and cats living together [Ghostbusters lol]....etc etc...

The disease is called Stockholm Syndrome, it's out of control on message boards, too.

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by burgler09

Actually, it does make you much more marketable, I have talked to many people who prefer spanish and they choose their doctors, dentists etc.. with the ones who speak spanish. They even told me they don't speak good spanish and can really only speak in present tense. Many times putting in the effort to learn will get you really far.

And yes, learning spanish is very fun.. and for the most part you really impress the people who are native speakers. For every one person who hates the fact, is 10 other people who get a big smile on their face and try to help you or talk a bit more slowly.

I don't know what you're talking about. Fun? Marketable only in Miami or certain other parts of Florida. Bilingual is marketable. Not a novice attempt at fooling around in Spanish. Like Beavis and Butthead at Taco Bell. but you probably weren't born then so don't remember that.

Yeah no kidding there's a whole crew who only go to Spanish speaking places. We know that. Unfortunately in the hospital they will have to deal with the lowly Gringa.

The OP is a freaking nurse in a hospital for goodness sakes. No way on the face of the earth is she going to become bilingual enough to speak Spanish at work. Nor should she have to even want to.

Only in Miami would this suggestion be considered normal. And only in Miami would it be considered impressive to speak pigeon Spanish. As if I care...nope. Try impressing me by assimilating like my husband did as an immigrant he couldn't learn English fast enough he was so happy to be here.

I am bilingual. I am a European American who speaks Greek fluently. Bilingual enough to do everything EXCEPT WORK IN A GREEK hospital And pretty much any other job I can think of besides waitress or something. You have to live there for a LONG TIME to be truly bilingual.

I mean are you guys for REAL? The nurse should spend her free time learning Spanish to humor the residents in one city in America. Nah, don't go for your masters, don't go for further higher education, go learn Spanish that won't even really help you.

Imagine OP, you get to learn all the names of the operating room instruments and all the anatomy and phsy ALL OVER AGAIN in SPANISH so they're all real impressed. Try not to kill someone while you're at it, though, 'kay?

[TannerMan]

How depressing you are.

[big mean bear]

There are two or three butterflies that fly around these types of threads who like to spread sugar coated, gleaming reviews about how they never have problems conversing in Miami. For example, tannerman never encounters people who cannot speak English in Miami. I don't know how this is possible, especially since he says he can walk through Little Havana and speak Englsih to "most people". I hate to be "cynical" but you must be walking around in circles somewhere other than Little Havana. Almost nobody speaks understandable English there.

I'm high tailing it out of this one, I put my two cents in, and this thread is destined for failure.

[planetsurf]

Nice little tirade, but I took the suggestion to mean "so they can talk to the other nurses in the break-room" not in surgery.

Maybe the OP has a different experience, but everytime I've been in a hospital in Miami, the Doctor ALWAYS talked to the nurses in English, no matter how thick their accents were and the nurses talked to us in English, no matter how thick their accents were. The OP did say everyone spoke English.

And come on, you can't think how it would be helpful for an RN to make herself more marketable ANYWHERE in the country even if she was just "a little" or conversationally bilingual? Even in Iowa they have migrant worker's who speak little or no English. Hispanics are everywhere and a growing demographic:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/top-stories/story/647451.html (broken link)
NOT to relearn everything in Spanish, just being a liason between a patient and doctor is hugely helpful. SO, if she's immersed in a Spanish environment, then this is a great time to do it and take advantage of the "bad" situation she's supposedely in (without being accused of promoting the "Miami Race Patriotic Agenda" - whatever the heck that means).


I do agree with you when you said "marching with flags from other countries " though ... I am SO sick of the damn Irish and their stupid St Patricks Day! I say kick them out if they want to fly the Irish flag! And next Columbus Day I'm kicking some Italian butt! And Oktoberfest ... what is the deal with Oktoberfest anyway? ...

[planetsurf]

Originally Posted by big mean bear

There are two or three butterflies that fly around these types of threads who like to spread sugar coated, gleaming reviews about how they never have problems conversing in Miami. For example, tannerman never encounters people who cannot speak English in Miami. I don't know how this is possible, especially since he says he can walk through Little Havana and speak Englsih to "most people". I hate to be "cynical" but you must be walking around in circles somewhere other than Little Havana. Almost nobody speaks understandable English there.

There are glass half full people and glass half empty people.

[TannerMan]

Originally Posted by big mean bear

For example, tannerman never encounters people who cannot speak English in Miami. I don't know how this is possible, especially since he says he can walk through Little Havana and speak Englsih to "most people". I hate to be "cynical" but you must be walking around in circles somewhere other than Little Havana. Almost nobody speaks understandable English there.

I'm high tailing it out of this one, I put my two cents in, and this thread is destined for failure.

You sure? I have never said that. Lets make that clear. I live in Hialeah!!!
Of course Ive encountered people who cannot speak english! Apparently it just happens to happen alot less to me.
And when I was talking about Little Havana I was taling about the people inside the businesses talked english, and thats just a fact. Go to versailles right now and that old man talks perfect english, the lady that served me coffee in the cafeteria window in another business talked english, the people in the cigar store were BLACK, I believe Jamaican! What about the French buisness on 8th street, you sure they speak no english, or the chinese restaurant. What about the kids that go to school? And I can gaurantee you there are plenty of english speaking adults as well, Im not denying alot if not the majority speak bad to no english in those certian parts of town. Didnt talk much to the crowds but to say "almost nobody speaks understandable english" is even more cynical. I guess I can call you a black moth?