Communication-verbal or non-verbal-during hospitalization is an important tool to provide a new way of looking and acting to nursing professionals. Based on the consideration that the understanding about the disease and hospitalization can be impaired due to the difficulty in understanding the Portuguese language, the authors carried out the present study aiming at evaluating the importance of the communication during hospitalization. In order to unveil the experience of these subjects, the authors developed a qualitative investigation with a phenomenological approach. Authors interviewed 17 Japanese immigrants at a hospital in the city of São Paulo. Results showed that the difficulty in speaking Portuguese interfered in the patients' understanding about the disease, its treatment and the relationship with the health team, enhancing the feeling of insecurity and demonstrating that culture does play an important role on these patients' behavior and attitudes concerning the disease and hospitalization.
international migration; communication; hospitalization