I'm in a non-English speaking country and English is not my first language, so I'm not very comfident with my oral english. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve oral English in several months so I can communicate well with American patients when I start my elective six months later.
Any suggestion will be much appreciated!
By the way, as far as I know there are thousands of international students that do away rotation in US (actually slots of many hospitals are exhausted 6 months ahead of time!). To my surprise, there are not much threads or posts related to application of US electives in SDN. So I'm wondering if SDN is the right place to seek information about that. Any one know any other place that are abundant with information for international students who is considering doing rotation in US?
Thanks in advance!
Well, SDN is accustomed for US medical school students; although it does have an international medical school thread, it's not exactly programmed to help out international medical schools. There are many other forums accustomed to threads that are more in their own country. For example: Paging Dr. Boards for Australia, ValueMD for Caribbean, etc.
As for English, take the IELTS and prepare for it like your life is on the line. Or the TOEFLs. That's how most people in my country (Taiwan) prepared for English and became great speakers (albeit still with some funny accents, but close enough). You can improve a lot in those few months, trust me, I've seen friends there who've skyrocketed their English skills lik mad. And if you just want to improve your english, I suggest going to websites that specializes in helping non-natives with their English. There are sites like that, you know.
I can help you as I'm a native speaker currently residing in Taiwan and going to Australia for medical school next year, but only with specific English questions. For example, I can correct grammar and help make your phrases more fluent, but other than that, I can't be much help (i.e. I can't tutor you). But if you do have specific phrases or vocabulary that you need help with, drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do.
Read magazines like TIME and they should not only keep you up to date with news so you can talk about the same hot topics as your peers, but also shows you how to use the common vocabulary and phrases correctly. Medical journals would also help like the New England journal to keep you up to date with some english medical terms (as well as provide some review material!). You can try listening to news, find a few friends (if possible) to speak english with and practice. Constant exposure is the greatest shortcut to good english.
And as long as you actually SPEAK the language during the US medical rotations, your english will improve greatly. No one will laugh at you if you don't speak english well as long as you strive to improve it. They don't expect you to. And besides, the majority of your English skills will improve during the rotations themselves. So don't be so nervous - it's natural for foreigners not to speak english like the natives. After all it's not your mother tongue.
