Hey all, first post. I'm wondering what the ideal foreign language medical schools are looking for. I must take two semesters at my university for general ed. Currently enrolled in Mandarin Chinese, but can still drop/add for a few more days. I'm considering german, latin, and spanish also. German because I took it in high school and can remember a little bit. Latin because it involves medical terminology, and spanish because it is very useful in the US and I heard its not that hard to learn. I'm a little worried about Chinese though because it will be quite difficult and I don't really see the use unless I'm planning to be in international business or something. Thoughts? Thanks.
Best language for medical school?
- Thread starter thill26
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Spanish. Don't bother with latin.
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Not quantity, quality.
And it depends which area you're planning on working.
Spanish is the catch all because there are many areas where it will undoubtedly be useful. If you live on the west side, cambodian is also a good option.
Remember that it has to be good enough for conversation. Enough to get an accurate medical history, basic interrogation skills, and cultural respect.
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¡Claro que sí!
D
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Two semesters isn't enough to gain any practical skill in a language. Medicine requires much more than a rudimentary understanding, as physicians communicate very complex ideas.
An adcom on SDN recently posted that Spanish is probably the best, but that any foreign language has value.
The answer is Deutsch.
An adcom on SDN recently posted that Spanish is probably the best, but that any foreign language has value.
The answer is Deutsch.
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#1 Medical schools are not looking for you to take a foreign language. I would also advise you to stop thinking about your life in those terms as it will harm you in the long run and in the application process itself. Trying to fit neatly into the box of 'what medical schools want', is the easiest way to find yourself with a reasonable number of interviews and zero acceptances because you are a colorless pre-med automaton.
#2 Latin is a waste of time. I had 3 years of it in HS. I'm actually reasonably 'fluent' if such a thing could exist. If you want to win spelling bees, maybe I could see utility. For everything else, there are better things to spend your time on.
#3 German has little to no practical utility inside the US and very limited use outside of the US as there generally aren't underserved areas of the world that speak German.
#4 Chinese has more practical utility inside the US, but pretty much only in a handful of major cities. Even within those cities, only a few hospitals will it REALLY help. On the other hand, 1/6th of the world's population speaks it. A large amount (and growing) of research is done in Chinese, both inside US grad programs and overseas.
#5 Spanish is by far the most practical. In terms of raw number of patients you will see, Spanish will be the most useful. Different areas will benefit you more than others, but it will make your services night and day different if you have a reasonable command of the Spanish language. At the same time, a large number of areas have next to zero utility for Spanish, so not having it doesn't largely harm people.
#6 The most important take home point is. You are asking the wrong question. Your focus is getting into medical school. That means doing well academically and engaging in personal development and skill derivation with the other 80 hours/week of your life. Take the class that you will enjoy the most, because you will likely do the best in it. If everything is equal to you, take Chinese or Spanish. Then go out and do something with your free time that makes you a better person, and therefore a better future doctor and stop worrying about "what medical schools want".
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Spanish, American Sign Language
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Chinese is incredibly difficult to learn for westerners since it has intonations that just don't exist in western languages. It would take you years of formal training to get you to a place where you could speak in a conversational manner. On the other hand, Spanish has many parallels to English is much easier to pick up. In the same time span, you would be much farther ahead learning Spanish. Spanish is of course the 2nd most spoken language in the US, so it has the functional aspect too.
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I took Mandarin for a couple years and became conversationally fluent. The Chinese population (in my area) that needs help with translation overwhelmingly speaks Cantonese, so I'm not helpful. And at least in my experience, native Mandarin speakers tend to be pretty well-educated and can speak English, or have a relative who is bilingual. I can't say the same for Spanish.
That said, I loved studying it and I loved studying abroad in China. If you want to learn a language, I cannot recommend it enough. It is very difficult, but I thought it was an incredible and worthwhile experience!
That said, I loved studying it and I loved studying abroad in China. If you want to learn a language, I cannot recommend it enough. It is very difficult, but I thought it was an incredible and worthwhile experience!
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There are more than enough doctors for whom Chinese is their native language. As a non-native speaker, odds of your getting that good are quite slim.
Therefore, go for Spanish. Widely spoken, much easier to learn.
But heed @Mimelin excellent advice -- Don't live your life trying to make yourself into the most attractive applicant. You'll just mess up your life...
Therefore, go for Spanish. Widely spoken, much easier to learn.
But heed @Mimelin excellent advice -- Don't live your life trying to make yourself into the most attractive applicant. You'll just mess up your life...
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Mandarin is surprisingly easy, though very inefficient a language (I guess it shows its age in that regard). After the initial hurdle of tones and making their distinctions, the rest is very simplistic.
I don't recommend it as a language for the reasons mentioned. Just wanted to clarify in case anyone wanted to learn it for fun.
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you're incredibly wrong. It is neither inefficient nor simplistic.
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I disagree, but it's an opinion, so let's agree to disagree.
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Unless you're a native speaker, it is incredibly hard and not at all simplistic a language. Not to mention the heavy focus on idioms and phrases commonly used in the langage.
Also the fact that every word is a distinct character. I'm not sure how expanding your vocabulary by memorizing each character is at all simplistic.
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I would give it a spin. You'll see too that, after the initial hurdle of just understanding what sounds are being made, the rest is easy, and can be figured out. Even many of the idioms, when you first hear them, you run them through and can figure out the meaning, and then you'll end up smiling at the cleverness of it.
Think of Mandarin as a violin: it's hard to produce the note, but once you do, it's obvious how to produce other notes. English, by comparison, is like a piano: you make the sound you want simply by pressing down on a particular place.
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Learning the pinyin is like learning the alphabet. It is of course easy to reproduce the alphabet once you learn it. However it's the ability ability to distinguish the dozens of different potential meanings from each individual sound and intonation that is one of the more difficult aspects of Chinese. I'm sure you're aware of the lion in the stone den poem.
Chinese is routinely considered one of the most difficult languages to gain proficiency in.
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I'd avoid pinyin altogether when first learning Mandarin. And it's not easy to reproduce once you learn it, nor should you take the approach of memorizing. It only becomes easier to reproduce as you practice to reproduce, an approach that is not "read a book"-friendly. Part of the difficulty stems from starting from pinyin and thinking the sound and intonation are separate entities. It's better to learn them as a unit first, and then learn the phonetic makeup of a morpheme later.
It's considered difficult because it has a high barrier of entry.
I took latin for 3 years in high school and it has been extremely useful for learning terminology. You won't have to spend nearly as as much time memorizing anatomical terms and conditions because you'll have a baseline understanding of the roots. I would say that it's not necessarily worth taking the advanced latin courses that focus on literature, but if you're only going to take a language for two semesters (which I personally don't believe is enough time to become fluent in a modern language) then I think latin would be the most beneficial.
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What? I would say it's the other way around. It's surprisingly difficult for a Westerner to become good at, but quite efficient as a language. I'd say English is a very inefficient language compared to Mandarin.
Are you a native speaker? If you are, maybe that's why it's easy for you.
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No, not a native speaker. When I read science - especially physics - the creation of new words or concepts appeared contrived rather than logical or clever like they usually are. The resistance for/stubbornness against new "letters" is at the heart of the problem, IMO (but this is getting really beyond the scope of this topic, lol). Don't get me started on traditional vs simplified...
Anyway, the best written articles/entries on science just interspersed english words, which I applaud. Because the "letters" that make up quantum physics actually convolutes the concept of it. This is one of too many examples I've seen.
The more things that are distinct and different from anything before, the less versatile the language becomes, and it trips over itself. Electric stairs is more cute and intuitive than the english equivalent, but what about quantum computing?
Again, let's agree to disagree. It's just my opinion that when you start using another language in your everyday language, there's inefficiency.
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People make out the intonations problem to be much bigger than it actually is. I've been learning Mandarin for five years now and picked up on the intonations within the first week; mostly I don't even care about intonation when listening because context is enough to understand. I actually found Mandarin far easier than the 3 years of bs high school spanish I took for IB; no genders, crazy efficient, very simplistic, no weird rules, the only big thing is all the characters. but none of that matters because enrolling yourself in two semesters of lecture based instruction of a foreign language with the expectation of learning the language at even a conversational skill level is a joke
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I'm halfway decent with Japanese, but I highly doubt that's going to help me much. In terms of language preference for medical schools, I don't think it's going to make all that big of a difference if you're applying anyway. In terms of practicality, I'd definitely lean more towards Spanish.
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It depends where you are. If you're in Minnesota for example, Somali, Hmong and Spanish are important. But Spanish is the most useful I believe.
I speak 6 languages but non of them is Spanish, I can read Spanish and understand but there is no way I could talk or hear it. I'm trying to learn but it's hard. All the languages I speak except for English, I have learned them by the age of 10. I learned English by listening to music and I didn't know that I've learned it until I went for an interview and found myself talking it
I speak 6 languages but non of them is Spanish, I can read Spanish and understand but there is no way I could talk or hear it. I'm trying to learn but it's hard. All the languages I speak except for English, I have learned them by the age of 10. I learned English by listening to music and I didn't know that I've learned it until I went for an interview and found myself talking it
