In one day you learn:

1. How Spanish is put together.
2. Key words and phrases needed by healthcare providers.
3. To speak in partial and complete sentences native speakers will understand.
4. How to continue learning on your own.

The course was developed and produced by Robin Melnick, a medical interpreter in French and Spanish with 40 years’ experience designing and teaching foreign language courses. Robin specializes in teaching Spanish to healthcare providers and English to Hispanics.

Using the SHAPES Language Training system, Robin Melnick teaches healthcare providers to speak Spanish with Hispanic patients and their families in one day.

SHAPES Language Training is based on a simple, graphic system that teaches adults to understand and speak any foreign language without translating.

The SHAPES are five colored, geometric plastic pieces that describe the structure of a foreign language. These SHAPES make it easy to see and understand how any language is put together. The SHAPES system is used in all courses Robin writes and teaches but the plastic pieces aren't always necessary.

In a one-day, on-site course for healthcare providers:

» You learn to pronounce Spanish in a way that will be understood by any native speaker.

» You learn the critical words and phrases needed by all healthcare professionals and understood by everyone. This small, practical vocabulary enables healthcare providers with little or no Spanish experience to respectfully ask routine questions and tell patients and their families what they need to know.

» You learn to put words, phrases and sentences together the way native speakers put them together so you can communicate with Hispanics who speak varying dialects. You don’t memorize. You understand how phrases and sentences are put together in Spanish.

How many students per class?

Up to 10 healthcare providers can participate in a one-day, on-site course. There are four hour-and-a-half sessions – two in the morning and two in the afternoon. The course is based on Robin’s Spanish for Nurses CD. Each participant receives a CD and hand-outs. This course is for total beginners and for people who know a little Spanish but who don’t know how to put words together.

Robin also teaches three-day courses for healthcare providers at SHAPES Language Training Center or on-site. »

Watch confidence soar, productivity increase, and patient rapport improve when SHAPES Language Training is put into action.