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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Spanish accents. sm

Posted By: JJ on 2006-07-03
In Reply to: which accent do you find the hardest to transcribe? - USAMT

I worked on an account out of San Diego once, heavily thick Spanish (Mexican), brilliant docs, but very difficult.  I work on an account in FL now, still Spanish but Cuban and very, very different.  Those of you who say you don't do accents, try another field.  This job is all about dialects and learning and hanging in there.  If you are pompous enough to say, "you don't do this or that", bet your pay reflects it. 


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Spanish accents. smC
Clarification:  You probably still make good $$$$ if you are the perpetual cherry picker.  I hate cherry pickers, that is cheating, lying and stealing.  Most managers even those Rhit sort of people, do not realize how much cherry picking hits those of us in the pocket who do any job assigned.  I hope all cherry pickers rot in hello.
Spanish b@tt doctor
Lovely job working for a Spanish gastroenterologist who's wife was the office manager and enjoyed called office help stupid in Spanish and I was responsible for making sure gloves and lube were stocked---no kidding, this was apparently in the fine print somewhere when I signed on (probably in Spanish).
One of the Spanish docs says
and "common" for comma.
Spanish - Mexican version
Cubans, no problem, Mexicans, no way.  I love Indians and Asians.
Spanish, Slavic, and Greek.
x
I grew up in so cal, but the Spanish dictators are the sm

hardest for me.  The Japanese and Korean ones are the best.  Seems like the enunciate more clearly or something. 


I think Spanish and French are the worst, (sm)
and I even took French. But they have an annoying way of dropping out all recordable sound and just doing something with their lips that a recorder can't pick up at the end of some words that is very annoying.

I have enjoyed British, but every newbie should be warned about their "stop" and "full stop" for punctuation, LOL.
I want to learn Spanish so when go to my fave
x
I wore a Spanish mantilla - it stayed out of the way and was still fun.

To me they are harder than Indians, Spanish or anything else. Strange.
nm
We are expected to learn spanish, make
x
Spanish, French do celebrate Christmas in USA
Middle Eastern Arabic people do not celebrate Christmas nor the Jewish people (and Chanukah comes early 12/3 this year so they should be working.  Russian Christmas is in January.  The Hispanic community as well as the French communities here in the USA, as I know it, certainly do celebrate Christmas.  Happy Holidays To All....
Goes both ways. I have a hard time with tenses when speaking Spanish. :)
s
Accents - sm
Just wondering - do you southern MTs have as much trouble with northern accents as I do with southern accents?  They sure take some getting use to; no disrespect intended, but some words are pronouced so differently that I have to listen several times to get them.  I suppose I'll adjust eventually - I hope!! 
accents
YES! we do, I'm from Texas.
to JWJ on accents
You are SO RIGHT. I do a LOT of ESLs and I rarely have problems just because of what you said - think with an accent and pay attention to where you are in the report. If you can't beat 'em - join 'em. When you are done, you can go back to your real thinking but in the meantime, think like them.
accents
White males who make long, convoluted sentences with improper sentence structure.
southern accents
Being a Yankee who now lives in the south, I can relate! Had far more trouble with the southern dictators than with the foreign ones.
And yest, those British & Australian ones are sexy!
No accents/ESL. PERIOD!

Okay, I have a confession... I cannot understand accents.  Period.  So, when going to see a new physician, etc., I make sure to ask right off the bat whether the doctor speaks clear English, and if the answer is no, then I tell them that I am sorry for wasting their time and I go to the next doctor.


Just the same, when I was being considered for the accounts I have now, I told the lady I work for that I cannot do heavy accents or ESL doctors.  I know - - could have kept me out of work, but you know what?  I don't need the money that bad, because I would just be spending it on psych meds because trying to do the work would make me crazy! 


I know you can learn accents

Ever wish you could take your post back after more thought?  I spent alot of time thinking about this topic of ESL/accent/ignorant dictators, and I guess I would like to clarify now.


I understand that if you listen to the same dictator or dialect repeatedly, you learn to understand it, and there are several that I have become quite familiar with.  But, my point was that for the $2.00 +/- per page that I get paid, I choose to listen to someone who is willing to take the time to speak with courtesy and clarity into the microphone.  I understand that at some point I may not have the choice, but while I do, I choose to work for someone who gives what they expect.  They expect clear reports, I expect clear dictation.  And they get paid ALOT more than I do to hold up their end of the bargain.


On the same token, for the hundreds of dollars that I pay out in medical expenses every year, I choose to give that money to someone I can understand and that I am relatively sure understands me, without the language barrier.  I don't want to chance a compromise in care because of a misunderstanding in communication; there are enough other things that can cause a compromise in care.


The medical language is hard enough when everyone is speaking the same language, with all the sound-alike words and similiar words, etc.  I don't want to confuse it even more with any extra variations.  I know it is here to stay, but I want to stay under my rock as long as I can.


Hope I haven't I haven't worsened my "foot-in-mouth" disease, or made anyone else even more upset...


I'd estimate about 200+ - all accents
x
worst accents

I agree with the person who said not really an accent.   Those who chew, yawn and dictate while falling asleep are the worst.   the only Hispanic I ever worked for was very precise and even said comma, period etc. his words were very distinct but some of his pronunciation was difficult but once becoming accustomed to that it was no problem. 


 


Vent on accents. SM
Why oh why does a doctor who has been in the United States practicing medicine for over 20 years continue to have the same thick accent and poor grasp of the English language, as well as inability to grasp proper grammar and punctuation. It's like they do not even attempt to lose the accent. I understand young foreign doctors who have not been here long and are struggling to deal with language barriers, their residency, etc., but these older docs who I know have been around for a long time, drive me insane. I would in no way, shape, or form see them for my medical care, if they have made no effort to improve communication with their U.S. patients. Hello, what country are we in here? Thanks for listening to my vent.
vent on accents
I think most of the larger Medical Schools do offer the remedial courses, at least the 2 I worked for did, in fact, it was required for all foreign docs at first. Just wish that all ESL docs would take advantage of it.
I prefer non-Southern accents

I'm from the south but lived out of the area for several years.  My favorite accents are Northeast and MidWest.  For a while I did MT for a hospital in rural Alabama where a resident from Cuba was working.  He had acquired a number of southern altruisms that cracked me up with his thick Hispanic accent.  I'll never forget when he treated an elderly woman who had received a rattlesnack bite to her foot through her "teenie shoes."  (if I hadn't been from the south, I wouldn't have known he was referring to "tennis shoes!")


Once my dryer needed servicing and the repair man came out.  After talking for a while I asked if he was from somewhere near southern Russia because of his accent.  He got so excited that someone knew the geographic area of his origin!  He was from a tiny little country bordering southern Russia!  (one of my neurologists was from Russia).  I love to try to place someone's accents


d~ 


I have a bad time with southern accents too
Their words just sort of fall into one another and it seems like they put emphasis on the wrong part of the word, so I need to concentrate with them.  The worst however is the Chinese accent by far.  Especially when they do try to slow down and enunciate, it makes it worse.
middle eastern accents
I had one yesterday for that sang and hummed most of the report. He dictated in a sing-song voice that made me think he was casting some sort of spell. In between words and sentences he would say, ahhhh, ummmmmmm, and then speed ahead with the sing-song again. And it was all in a middle-eastern accent. It was an extra long report and awful. I was so jittery by the time I finally finished.
anyone else think British accents are sometimes difficult?

There are few doctors with British or Australian accents compared to Indian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, East Asian etc....but perhaps because I don't hear them as often I am sometimes really thrown off by them..  not ESL! But I find myself relistening before I get some of the words.   Also difficult are some of the other European dictators...do not get as many of those either. Used to get a guy - I looked him up on the hospital web site - it said he spoke about 6 different European languages - he had a very unusual accent.


No, not for me! I love European accents
and do well with them. However, the middle eastern accents throw me. There's something about the tone or pitch that I simply can't hear. Maybe I have a deaf spot or something. It's caused problems at jobs because MT employers think I'm "refusing" to do those work types when it's actually a hearing problem. Some of the Hispanics are the same way. I can do Asian, French, German, Scandinavian, east coast, American Indian, southern, British, whatever, just not east Indian/Arabic accents.
I have as much trouble with southern (USA) accents (sm)
as I do with most ESLs!
My mom is from the south. Thanks to that I have no problem with southern accents. nm
:+
Hope you're good with accents! sm

All customer service is outside of the US and I had a really tough time communicating with them.  Also if you choose to discontinue early there's a whopping $90 fee that's buried in the fine print.


I used Vonage with broadband satellite for 2 months and it disconnected frequently on me....my satellite has been stable for years with multiple platforms so I suspect Vonage is just not suited for satellite.  Just a heads up!


Accents (Kim Komando's Cool Site of the Day), 8/10

Always something interesting in Kim's world:


TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE:
www.languagetrainersgroup.com


What's the worst part of it? Accents, research, TAT, etc.? Hope
x
No, not at all, plenty of people with accents, not all sound dopey.
Then again, maybe it's all the pot he smokes, kills a lot of brain cells, ya know?
LOL