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Languages for Medical Doctors? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Matthew12 Newbie United States Joined 4107 days ago 13 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 1 of 23 30 April 2013 at 3:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I want to become a doctor, and I am trying to figure out which languages would be beneficial towards this area of science (I'm either going to be a neurologist or cardiologist, something of that nature). My native language is English and I'm learning Spanish in school and German on my own, but are there any other languages that could be helpful to a doctor? And I don't mean studying Greek or Latin because that's where a lot of medical terms come from. For instance, there are a lot of Spanish speakers in America so if you lived in America and practiced medicine, it might be good to learn Spanish as well as English. See what I'm getting at? Thanks in advance for answering! (By the way, this applies to living in America, because I don't know if I want to be a doctor abroad). Edited by Fasulye on 18 June 2013 at 10:34am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lemberg1963 Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States zamishka.blogspot.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4021 days ago 41 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English*, Ukrainian* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Polish | Message 2 of 23 30 April 2013 at 4:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in a similar situation, I just finished my premed requirements and am going to
apply next year. I'm looking at emergency medicine so I've done some research on this. German is useful for research, although most research will be published in English anyway. In terms of clinical care, after the obvious Spanish, there is a large variety and will depend on where you live. In California Chinese and Vietnamese are common. Around Boston there are many Portuguese speakers, admittance rate for Lusophones there is actually higher than for Hispanophones. In the New York area, where I'm from, you would expect Chinese or Russian to be the largest population after Spanish speakers but it actually varies between hospitals. Depending on the neighborhood there are hospitals where French, Polish and even Japanese speakers outnumber the Chinese and Russians. Short answer, master Spanish. After that it really depends on the region, and considering the competitiveness of medical school and residencies, it's unlikely that you'd be able to predict where you'll be going. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4791 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 23 30 April 2013 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I study medicine but the language situation is very different in Europe.
About the research published in English: majority of research by natives of small languages is primarily published in English. It is not entirely true about the French or German researchers. It sometimes takes time before their results are published in English as well or at least before there is as much to read about it in English as in the original language. During your studies, you could find some German or French ressources useful but you can surely live without them as you have the huge English based library at hand. What you might consider more are opportunities to study abroad. There is Erasmus Mundus and similar programs which allow students to spend a semester or two in another country, experiencing another university, hospital and health care system. There is the international organisation of medical students (IFMSA) which organises one month long stays during summer all over the world. These are in English but it is always handy to understand the local language. Lemberg is probably right about your future patients in the USA. Spanish seems to be the number one choice. Therefore it may be interesting to use the opportunities to study in Mexico or another Latin American country for a semester or spend there the summer month in hospital. But you should be ready for those opportunities. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4912 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 23 30 April 2013 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
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To give you a idea of what's possible, I suppose you could look into the languages that
Doctors Without Borders use. Their website states that they operate in 70 different countries, so that's a healthy number of languages from which to choose. R. == 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fireballtrouble Triglot Senior Member Turkey Joined 4306 days ago 129 posts - 203 votes Speaks: Turkish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 5 of 23 30 April 2013 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm also studying in medicine and I think English is definitively enough for a researcher
doctor. OK, I admit that Germany and France do lots of scientific researches but their international texts are already published in English. So, if you become a doctor in the US and work there, when you correspond with a French colleague in France, you two will probably write in English. Need for French, German or Spanish is useful if you are about to work in a country where those languages are spoken or in local areas where native people live in the US. For Russian and Chinese, even these 2 are widely spoken, I dont see professional benefits. Because Russia and China are in general closed and unlikely to accept international students/doctors for long term. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4450 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 6 of 23 30 April 2013 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Croatia, English is the only language doctors need to know. (Well, along with Latin, since diagnoses are still written in Latin, less so in psychiatry but in all other fields they are).
We used many British and American books in medical school (in English mainly, since new editions in English are so quickly released/updated, and translators and editors cannot keep up with the pace), for example, golden classics: Harper's biochemistry, Guyton's physiology, Robbins' pathology, Harrison's internal medicine etc... Scientific research articles and summaries, are all in English. PUBMED and MEDSCAPE are in English. Research in my medical field (psychiatry) is done according to American standards (following DSMV), and not according to WHO standards (this is how it's done everywhere in the world). German used to be the language of psychiatry 50 years ago, but this no longer the case (Psychotherapy and psychiatry in Germany are in a sad shape these days, with only a handful options available, compared to the UK/US, although the situation in Austria and Switzerland is somewhat better: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapie#Psychotherapieve rfahren ). Edited by Medulin on 30 April 2013 at 1:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4450 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 7 of 23 30 April 2013 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | ||
In Brazil, Doctors without borders use only Brazilian Portuguese, since their work in Brazil is restricted to doctors with Brazilian citizenship. No foreign (that is non-Brazilian) doctors allowed. This restriction was imposed by the Brazilian government, in order to protect Amerindians. Edited by Medulin on 30 April 2013 at 2:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6011 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 23 30 April 2013 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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As an MD in the US I can attest that the most useful language aside from English is Spanish followed by Spanish
and then Spanish. You may even want to pick up some Spanish.... It blows me away how few MDs in the US can speak ANY Spanish. Learn Spanish and learn it well. Your time will not be wasted! As far as other languages, as others have pointed out, it really depends on your geography. On the West coast any Asian language would serve you well. There seem to be more and more Arabic speakers out here as well. I know several groups in San Francisco who specifically need Cantonese and/or Mandarin speakers. The LA area has a notable Armenian and Iranian population. I have heard that in Texas, Burmese, Vietnamese and Indian languages are widely spoken. The upper Midwest has communities of Hmong, Cambodian and Somali immigrants. Portuguese has become huge around the Boston area. I did my residency in Springfield Mass and on a daily basis, I could count on hearing Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Russian and Vietnamese. One evening a patient was in the ER who only spoke Finnish and Hungarian! I wouldn't learn Latin or Classical Greek specifically to use them in medicine, however, after medical school you will be surprised how much Latin and Greek you know! Also, don't limit yourself to a specialty choice this early on! Some MDs (like me) don't figure out what they want to do until they are out practicing medicine for a while! Learn all aspects of all medical specialties well. You can always specialize down the road. I'm not sure how old you are, but you should volunteer in clinics and hospitals with docs as much as possible. Not only will you start building connections that can help you down the road, but you might figure out that Medicine really isn't your cup of tea. (some colleagues don't realize this until they have put in years of work and have a six-figure debt to pay off!!) Edited by liddytime on 30 April 2013 at 5:58pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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