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Languages for Medical Doctors? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4450 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes  Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 17 of 23 04 August 2013 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's kind of strange that Mandarin and Hindi are more useful in New Zealand than Maori. Edited by Medulin on 04 August 2013 at 3:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4610 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 18 of 23 04 August 2013 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Be aware though, that there is not just one sign language: Sign Language
In the German film "Jenseits der Stille" (which featured sign language heavily), the actor playing the father character was American and had to learn the German variant of sign language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jake Day Newbie United States Joined 4811 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 23 04 August 2013 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wholeheartedly agree with learning Spanish for medicine. It has become a necessity in most parts of the US to
know at least a little Spanish. If you're going to become a medical doctor, you'll probably work with a lot of poor people in the early years of your career, many of whom speak Spanish better than English. Another set of languages you may consider studying to at least a basic level would be the native languages of North America. Native North Americans are usually poor, and they receive government doctors in the US and Canada. If you might become one of those doctors, you might learn a bit of the native language. Navajo, for example, is taught to non-native doctors working close to the Navajo Nation. (Normally, some Native North Americans don't like it when non-natives learn native languages, so the fact that they're willing to teach doctors the language tells me how bad the need is for such doctors.) You might also consider learning Native Latin American languages, such as Nahuatl, Aymara, or Quechua. There are a lot of poor immigrants to the US who come to work in farms, ranches, or meat-packing plants who speak neither Spanish nor English, but rather only native languages. People who work in these occupations are prone to injury, and would require native-language fluent doctors who can help them. There are also other foreign sources of agricultural and food processing labor, such as Somalia, Thailand, or Haiti. Learning Somali, Thai, or Haitian Creole may help your medical career. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6379 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 20 of 23 04 August 2013 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
And no need to label native speakers of this or that language as poor. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jake Day Newbie United States Joined 4811 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 23 05 August 2013 at 1:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Forgive me; I did not intend to offend. What I meant to say is that in the early years of a medical career in the US, you may be sent by the government to work in an economically depressed neighborhood or community; and that in most parts of the country, that means dealing with people who are less likely to speak English and moderately more likely (but not guaranteed) to speak Spanish. I'm not saying that there aren't prosperous people whose main language is Navajo or Quechua or Somali. Take the example of Notah Begay, a wealthy pro golfer whose native language is Navajo. 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 22 of 23 05 August 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Of course I meant that it's useful to learn the one sign language used in your area. Might be more complicated for people moving to another country to learn a second sign language.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jeronz Diglot Newbie New Zealand Joined 4640 days ago 37 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Yiddish, Latin, German, Italian | Message 23 of 23 06 August 2013 at 6:47am | IP Logged | |||||
Maori is actually an endangered language, quite a sad story. It was systematically suppressed during the late 19th century and early 20th century in preference of English (among other injustices). You were actually forbidden to use Maori as a child at school. Nowadays there are also no full blooded Maori anymore and almost all that speak it are also native English speakers. I have never needed an interpreter for a Maori patient. There are some areas in the northern area of the north island (northland) where it is spoken but as for the rest of New Zealand it is very rare outside of special institutes and Maori only schools. According to wikipedia in 2001 only 9% of the Maori population or 29,000 adults could very fluently speak Maori. We realized our mistake a couple of decades ago and the government is pouring a lot of money into trying to revive it but there is still a long way to go. So much has been lost that will never be recovered. It is very sad that Hindi, Samoan and Mandarin are by far more commonly heard. Unfortunately there is no impetus for me to learn Maori (beyond words and phrases) as the opportunities to use it are very few. Edited by jeronz on 06 August 2013 at 6:51am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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