Hello Sarah:
A week ago I returned from a wonderful four week Spanish immersion
program in San Jose, Costa Rica. I studied at the International Health
Central American Institute (IHCAI). www.ihcai.org IHCAI caters to
medical students and residents, but also attendings—and spouses. Traffic
was a little slow due to the holidays, but we had five medical students
from Australia, two from New Zealand, one American, and one American
resident. They arrived with different levels of competency in Spanish,
but all were accommodated. Most of the students worked at a clinic on
the Pacific (read beach) after their medical Spanish preparation. I was
especially impressed with the quality of training and instruction: one
of my instructors is a trained linguist (“Jose, es buenos dias, no
buenos dia”), another instructor is a physical therapist. Their
instructional materials is the best of the five Spanish language schools
that I have participated in Latin America.
Please write me if you have other questions.
JTW
Joseph T. Williams, Director
Office of Multicultural Programs
Case Western Reserve University
School of Medicine
Room E421
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
216-368-0529 Office
216-368-8597 Fax
Comment of Cara Bergamo posted on the
website of his university - University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey: Robert Wood Johnson Medical School - USA
IHCAI Foundation - Intensive Medical Spanish Course
June 2009
"I really enjoyed my experience with
IHCAI. The course was incredibly well organized and relevant. I feel like
i learned a tremendous amount. The teachers obviously prepared a lot for
our course and invested heavily in our development. GRACIAS!"
About the family experience:
"Zulema made an incredible effort to
ensure. That i had a great experience in Costa Rica. She treated me like
her own children and was incredibly accomodating. I feel so lucky to was shared
her home."
Supriya Rajpal (Medical Resident)
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
2003
P 010A
In the way to Totuguero
About the course:
"El curso era muy organizada y había
mucho atención individual. Me gustaba mucho todos los profesores y tener
diferentes profesores"
About the family experience:
"La familia es muy amable y me ayudaba
muchísimo. La madre siempre lavaba mi ropa, cocinaba comida que me gusta y
hablaba conmigo"
Kathleen Cusick (medical student)
Connecticut School of Medicine
2003
P
010A
One of the Tortuguero natural canal.
About the course:
"This is an excellent course and i
would recommend it highly to others! All people involved are excellent and
very helpful and accomodating. Thanks for an excellent time!"
About the family experience:
"The housing was excellent and the
family was very nice!"
Angela Enos (Physician Assitant Student)
Pacific University
2003
P 010B
A party at Pachira Lodge.
Essay wrote in spanish
by James Cooper the last day of the course, february 2003 (P 010
A - University of Connecticut):
"el 28 de febrero 2003
Kathleen...
Recuerdo que usted me pareció muy
nerviosa cuando llegó al principio. Yo tambien estuve nervioso el primer
día pero nosotros hemos cambiado por lo mejor. Pienso que su español ha
mejorado mucho en la ultima mes. Pero la idioma será solamente una parte pequeña
de nuestros recuerdos. Siempre voy a recordar que Kathleen se sentó a lado
de mi y abajo de Jean cuando manejamos desde La Paz hasta San José con 9
personas en un carro pequeño. Y hemos visto muchas cosas que nunca pensé
ser possible: el pueblo de Montezuma sin agua, un río en la selva por la noche y
un volcan. Fue un buen viaje y quiero que pueda quedarme un poco más como usted
pero no es posible. Usted va a disfrutar mucho y quiero escuchar a sus historias
cuando regresa. Las historias son casi divertidas como la experiencia
real. (Recuerde cuando yo le dije la historia de mi polaquita por la primera
vez..."muy funny" como dice Yuri).
Por lo menos siempre voy a recordar
que Yuri siempre pronuncia su nombre "Cat-leen". Muy funny."
Some groups of 2003. Evergreen,
Tortuguero.
Email send by Marnel Bondoc
8/30/2003 (P 010 A - Midwestern University):
"Dear Dr.Tristan,
How are you? I hope all is well with
you and our IHCAI friends. It's been two months past now since I was in Costa
Rica, and even now I still miss your beautiful country, sometimes daydreaming of
my days in San José and our excursions in Costa Rica. I was going over my recent
rotation evaluations and happened to read what you have written about me. "Thank
you" so much for the nice words and great score on the evaluation. I was
pleasantly surprised and honored to find out that I got the "Exceptional Student"
and "High Honor" awards. Dr.Tristan, I had such a wonderful trip to your country
that these seem like the "icing on the cake" to top off a truly enjoyable trip
to Costa Rica and a remarkable experience with your group. I am so glad that I
decided to pursue this Costa Rica experience. I only wish the best for more
success to you and for IHCAI. I also have some photos that I would like to send
to IHCAI. If it's okay, I will address them "care of" Yuri and will use the
following address: IHCAI Foundation Main Office P.O.Box 1677-2100 San Jose,
Costa Rica I hope that this would work and that the pictures will bring back
good memories of our batch. Dr.Tristan, can you also please forward this email
to Yuri. I don't have his email address (I would like to have it) and I
personally would like to thank him also for all the help that he provided to my
group. Everyone appreciated his time and efforts. Again, thanks very much, and I
hope to keep in touch. Take care!
Marnel"
This is a Costa
Rica typical dry forest tree blossoming.
It is green
during the raining seasons and yellow flowering in the dry season.
Picture taken by
Yuri in Guanacaste forest.
International Health Central
American Institute
Foundation
IHCAI Foundation has its
headquartes in
San José, Costa Rica, Central America.
IHCAI Foundation is an equal
opportunity organization and do not make
any preference by gender, race,
sexual orientation or political opinions
and rejects those openly racist,
Nazi or Neo Nazi oriented.
IHCAI - Main Office
P.O. Box 1677-2100, San José,
Costa Rica, Barrio Escalante, San Jose, 7th Avenue, 35 and 37 Street, #3530
Tel: (506) 2234-6354 or (506) 2234-6347
// Fax: (506)2226-3047
