Foreign language required by some residency programs?????? [Archive]

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Heme/Onc

11-11-2005, 07:16 AM

This topic developed under the heading of another so I wanted to givepeople greater access to this issue. Do you think it is fair/legal/just to make a foreign language a requirement for a residency position?

Some people claim that it is part of your skills and based on the patient population working with it may be justified.

I feel that this is an english speaking country and although a foreign language may be helpful, looked at as a bonus, or a deciding factor in residency selection it should not be a requirement because it is discriminatory.

What do you guys think?

Stillorgan

11-11-2005, 08:18 AM

I've never heard of that one. But I guess if it's in an area that's 90% hispanic it makes sense. I don't think it's discriminatory. It saves you the cost and effort of applying if you don't speak the language. The alternative would be for them to not make it a requirment but to only rank people with the relavent language skills. That's definately not a better situation for anyone.

turtle,md

11-11-2005, 09:51 AM

Although in many parts of the country, Spanish is an unofficial 2nd language, it is still unofficial. Until our country adopts it officially as a 2nd language, I believe it is wrong to make it mandatory that someone speak a language that is not an official language of the country in which they live. To include it in the selection criteria is different. Although I speak Spanish, some of my colleagues do not. Our hospital has a great translator service, as many do that I have seen. So, yes, it slows things down a little, but to discriminate against people who do not speak a language that is not a recognized official language is not right!

Miklos

11-11-2005, 02:11 PM

The language situation is a little bit more complicated than mentioned above.

See (for instance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_state#U

United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States)

No official language statewide, English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language) is the de facto official language.

Carolinian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinian_language) (in the Northern Mariana Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands))
Chamorro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_language) (in Guam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam) and the Northern Mariana Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands))
English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language) (in Alabama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama), Alaska (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska), American Samoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa), Arkansas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas), California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California), Colorado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado), Florida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida), Georgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_%28U.S._state%29), Guam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam), Hawaii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii), Illinois (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois), Indiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana), Iowa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa), Kentucky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky), Louisiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana), Massachusetts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts), Mississippi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi), Missouri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri), Montana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana), Nebraska (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska), New Hampshire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire), New Mexico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico), North Carolina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina), North Dakota (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota), the Northern Mariana Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands), Puerto Rico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico), South Carolina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina), South Dakota (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota), Tennessee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee), the U.S. Virgin Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Virgin_Islands), Utah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah), Virginia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia), West Virginia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia), and Wyoming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming))
French (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language) (in Louisiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana))
Hawaiian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_language) (in Hawaii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii))
Samoan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_language) (in American Samoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa))
Spanish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language) (in New Mexico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico) and Puerto Rico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico))

Regardless, although I believe that English needs to be our official language, there's nothing in federal law that makes English our official language. As noted above, it is our de facto language.

turtle,md

11-11-2005, 02:55 PM

How very interesting. If the program requiring the knowledge of Spanish is UNM, then I guess it would be acceptable (or by that token, anyone at Tulane, LSU, etc should know French, and English should not be required :D ).

valedictorian

11-11-2005, 03:04 PM

robotsonic

11-11-2005, 05:37 PM

I clicked on the "United States" hypertext and got this:

United States is the worst country in the world. It's a country with delusions of grandeur. It is the only "superpower" in history that went from creation to progress to decadence without the progress part. United States is run by a dumb president called George W Bsh who is in fact a big a-hole.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"

Wow what an objective source of information. :laugh:

Anyone can edit wikipedia, which is why things like that can happen. Fortunately, there are also tons of people who monitor it and keep it on track - and will receive notices when one of their posts has been edited. The comment above was corrected in less than 5 minutes. You can look through the history of the page to see the corrections that people have made and the former things that were written there if you find a page like that again.

DropkickMurphy

11-11-2005, 07:13 PM

I personally think there is nothing wrong with requiring exposure to a foreign language. However I do not believe it should be mandated that it must be Spanish. This is why translation services exist.

Poety

11-11-2005, 07:20 PM

Anyone can edit wikipedia, which is why things like that can happen. Fortunately, there are also tons of people who monitor it and keep it on track - and will receive notices when one of their posts has been edited. The comment above was corrected in less than 5 minutes. You can look through the history of the page to see the corrections that people have made and the former things that were written there if you find a page like that again.

why do they allow anyone to edit their webpages?

dantay

11-11-2005, 07:26 PM

why do they allow anyone to edit their webpages?
that's the whole philosophy of WIKI. They use them within organizations as well, but the wikipedia is probably the most well known website.