How many languages do most medical students/doctors speak?

[brightblueeyes]

Three fluently. By the way, once you learn Spanish, you can read all of the romantic languages and pretty much understand. Often times you can even undestand spoken portugues and italian.

Aren't you exaggerating? If you're not, then I'm afraid this only works one way. 😉

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[kmancrx]

My father grew up speaking Spanish here in the US and never spoke english till he was in elementary school. Unfortunately he never spoke it to us as kids even though my mother taught Spanish and French at the high school level. I grew up in Miami and have studied spanish since I was in second grade. I minored in Spanish at UNC-Chapel Hill and also had the opportunity to spend some time in Spain for a summer.

I have been translating at the free clinic in Chapel Hill run by the Med Students at UNC. Granted, I don't know every word that the patients say but I have learned a lot and have been complimented by my peers. I don't claim to be "fluent," but I do feel that I will have no problems conducting patient interviews and exams in Spanish if I needed when I start in the fall at MUSC. I hope to use my spanish thoughout the rest of my life and in my future pratice.

I also lived in Italy for a year and had a very good grasp of Italian. I have lossed some of it though but I can still hold a conversation if needed. Medical terms are a bit more of a stretch in Italian.

 

[wire]

I'm fluent in American. 😉

 

[patzan]

oompaloompa,

It's very hard, almost impossible to learn to speak another language to the level of fluency without actually living in an area where only that language is spoken. You can get a book and learn how to make basic phrases and sentences and the other person will sort of understand what you are trying to say, but to truly speak a language you have to live it and interact with people in that language and watch them interact with you and others in that language.
dmitri

True, true, true. I can't tell you how many times I've met people who grew up in Chicago or Minnesota who claim to be fluent in Spanish and French because they took 12 years of it in school. The only people who can speak any decent Russian are those who 1) are from there, or 2) were Mormon missionaries there.

I am the latter, so that makes two for me (I am decent with Russian Sign Language, too, but those skills are fading faster than my Russian).

 

[Peeshee]

I think that a lot of people "learn" languages in school. That does NOT mean that they are by any means fluent or conversational in that language. I think you really have to immerse yourself in a place where most people only speak in the foreign language you want to learn. Then, you are forced to learn and forced to speak in their language. At the beginning, you will not be very good and make silly mistakes but over time, you will become fluent.

But,at the same time, there are some people (for whatever reason) that do not have the ability to quickly pick up languages. Maybe it's because of resistance.

 

[brightblueeyes]

7 fluent; 2 basic conversation. many docs end up picking up 1-2 add'l languages during the course of residency.

I think anyone who is already fluent in 7 languages probably could pick up 1-2 languages during residency. But as for the rest of us... 🙁

(I think this is what people mean by the word "gifted". 👍 )

 

[suryamin]

Eng+ Chinese (Mandarin + Taiwanese + Cantonese)
Hope can take more or less advantage when matching