Overview of the Stanford Cross Cultural Medicine Microlecture Series



Four and Forty-Two Group Classifications of Languages Spoken at American Homes with Examples (source: US Census)

The US population is becoming increasingly diverse. While many Americans speak English, Limited English Proficiency is common in communities of color. Shown below are the most common languages spoken in American homes.

Four Group Classification Forty-Two Group Classification Examples
Spanish Spanish Spanish, Ladino
Other Indo-European languages French (incl. Cajun) French, Cajun
Haitian Haitian
Italian Italian, Sicilian
Portuguese Portuguese, Kabuverdianu
German German, Luxembourgish
Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages Dutch, Yiddish
Greek Greek
Russian Russian
Polish Polish
Serbo-Croatian Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
Ukrainian or other Slavic languages Bulgarian, Czech, Ukrainian
Armenian Armenian
Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari) Iranian Persian (Farsi), Dari
Gujarati Gujarati
Hindi Hindi
Urdu Urdu
Punjabi Punjabi (Panjabi)
Bengali Bengali
Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages Nepali, Marathi, Konkani
Other Indo-European languages Albanian, Lithuanian, Pashto (Pushto), Romanian, Swedish
Telugu Telugu
Tamil Tamil
Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages Malayalam, Kannada
Asian and Pacific Island languages Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese) Mandarin Chinese, Min Nan Chinese (incl. Taiwanese), Yue Chinese (Cantonese)
Japanese Japanese
Korean Korean
Hmong Hmong
Vietnamese Vietnamese
Khmer Central Khmer (Cambodian)
Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages Thai, Lao
Other languages of Asia Burmese, Karen, Turkish, Uzbek
Tagalog (incl. Filipino) Tagalog, Filipino
Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages Cebuano (Bisayan), Hawaiian, Iloko (Ilocano), Indonesian, Samoan
All other languages Navajo Navajo
Other Native languages of North America Apache languages, Cherokee, Lakota, Tohono O’odham, Yupik languages
Arabic Arabic languages
Hebrew Hebrew
Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages Amharic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Somali, Tigrinya
Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa Akan (incl. Twi), Igbo (Ibo), Wolof, Yoruba
Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa Ganda, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Swahili
Other and unspecified languages Hungarian, Jamaican Creole English, Unspecified

About 25 million Americans have Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Eleven million are nonliterate in English.The Department of Health and Human (HHS) Services identifies individuals with LEP as those who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, write, speak, or understand English. As of 2021, Hispanic/Latinx persons account for nearly two-thirds (62%) of the LEP population, while over a fifth (22%) of individuals with LEP are Asian. Nearly 31% Asians over age five have LEP, followed by nearly 28% Hispanic/Latinx people.

An estimated 93 million Americans have Basic or Below Basic Health Literacy. As health care becomes more complex and specialized by the minute, the communication gulf between doctors and their patients is becoming progressively insurmountable. In order for us to provide quality care for all Americans, we need to become skilled in providing culturally effective care.

The Stanford Cross Cultural Medicine Microlecture Series is a series of very short talks (2 minutes each typically), which aims to highlight key issues in cross-cultural encounters. We are the first to acknowledge how complex and challenging this topic is. Thus we seek to share our experiences and sights gained from clinical practice and research about this important issue, more as a starting point rather than as a “gold standard.” Our hope is that trainees and health personnel will use our micro-lecture series as a tool to pause and reflect on their own practice.