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Learning a language
- Thread starter Perrotfish
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Arabic, spanish or french are very good to know.
I know a little Farsi to understand, wish I knew Arabic
French; if you do humanitarian work in Africa etc
Spanish: Europe, south America, U.S
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It honestly depends on a host of factors.
1. Do you plan to stay in the Navy?
If so, you should know that there are certain languages for which you can receive a "Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus". Certain languages pay a lot, others don't:
404
2. Do you want to learn a language that a lot of people know, or be the one gal/guy in the room who speaks a uniquely helpful language?
As an example, a friend of mine doing clinical rotations in Saint Louis initially regretted not taking Spanish in college since so many of his patients spoke the language. Thankfully, enough of his peers spoke the language that he could always call for assistance. In contrast, almost no one spoke Russian -- so the few times they actually had to treat a patient from one of the former Soviet Republics, my friend was in a unique position to help (since he'd taken two years of it).
This is why I don't always agree with the default recommendation for all medical personnel to learn Spanish (though I wouldn't necessarily discourage it, either).
3. Do you want to learn a language that's useful in a lot of regions, or something that's useful to a particular community/people group you have a lot of interest in?
Take Bengali, the language spoken in Bangladesh and a number of states in India. By number of speakers alone, it's the sixth most popular language in the world. Yet its use is basically confined to a very specific geographic region. (The same thing for Korean -- not a lot of people outside of Korea speak it, but if you like Korean food, live around a lot of Korean-Americans, have a crush on some Korean girl, etc....)
Contrast this to French, which is used (in some version) throughout Europe, western and central Africa and several countries in the Caribbean -- or to the geographic spread of Arabic, which devout Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia can at least read.
4. How important to you is the language's association with cultural, economic, and/or military power?
Yes, lots of people speak Arabic, French, and Spanish. However, I would argue that the people groups who speak these languages are losing their cultural, economic, and military influence when compared to countries on the rise in Asia, specifically the People's Republic of China. You could counter that the use of Chinese is largely geographically concentrated in, well, China (it's not like they speak it in neighboring countries like Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam). However, it cannot be denied that China will continue to influence global trade and international relations for the near term (and that literate Koreans and Japanese also understand Chinese characters), so if this is important to you....
5. Do the speakers of your foreign language also speak English to a high degree of proficiency?
Germany is Europe's biggest economic power and its language is spoken throughout the continent. However, speakers of German generally tend to be proficient in English as well. The same is true for most Europeans -- from personal experience in Afghanistan, the various European members of ISAF (the French, Italians, Estonians, Danes, etc) get along just fine in English. This is also the case in many parts of Japan and Korea. Of course, if you go to the countryside, you'll find few English speakers. But again, if you're mostly dealing with fellow physicians or military officers, an overwhelming majority of them will speak English to some degree -- or at least enough for you to get by.
Contrast this to the variants of the Persian language. Whether you call it "Dari" (Afghanistan), "Tajiki" (Tajikstan and Uzbekistan) or "Farsi" (Iran, Qatar and the UAE), most of the speakers I've met -- with the exception of the very educated -- cannot speak English to any degree of proficiency.
6. Do the speakers of your foreign language also speak a "mother tongue"? How many people actually speak it as a native language, as opposed to a second language?
Take Swahili. Yes, it's an official lanuage in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, but most of the Kenyans I know are more comfortable in their "mother tongue" -- like Kisii -- or in English, since it's the language of international business. Swahili is just something that they learn in school and then never really speak at home or at work -- sure, 40 million people "speak" it, but less than a million consider themselves native speakers. I would argue that Hindi is somewhat similar. A lot of people speak some version of it (and Urdu, its cousin), but people in India also speak another "mother tongue". (Moreover, most Kenyans and Indians speak English -- see #5 above.)
7. How easy will it be for you to learn? Will you be able to immerse yourself in the language either through study or work abroad? If not, are there native speakers of the language in the area in which you live and work?
Finally, I would make a pragmatic argument for how easy it'll be for you to pick up the language and sustain proficiency. Arabic, Chinese, and Korean are notoriously hard to learn (they have the longest courses of study at the Defense Language Institute). Moreover, I would argue that you can't truly learn a language unless you're living it out everyday, and I would also argue that language is a perishable skill that will diminish over time in the absence of practice. So let's say you try to learn Chinese, but never really have an opportunity to live in China -- how proficient can you truly become? And let's say you do move to Beijing for a few years, and get so good at the language that you pass for a local. But then you return to the States and live in Omaha or Phoenix as opposed to San Francisco or New York. How are you going to practice with a native speaker? How much are you going to retain over time?
To answer your specific questions:
Of course it helps, but see #5 above.
Well, I would cite the Sicilian proverb that you should never start a landwar in Asia.... In all seriousness, I don't think there'll be a war in the World War II sense (or even the OEF/OIF sense), but I would bet my next paycheck that the US will be involved in some way shape or form in the Pacific for a long time. Thus, Chinese would go a long way (see #4 above). As for French, also a good bet -- the US military will increasingly shift to foreign internal defense/security force assistance and/or humanitarian relief and development. A lot of that will take place in the Horn of Africa (yeah, they speak French in Djibouti), but I also think we're going to start getting involved in the Sahel (yeah, they speak French in Senegal, Chad, Mali, etc).
Spanish, but you already speak that.
I would lean against Korean (see #3 and #5), Thai (see #3 and #7) and Hindi (see #3, #5 and #6).
My recommendation is that given your medical career, Navy service (however long that would be), and most importantly, the fact that you already speak Spanish, I would go with French for your third language. You may get the Navy to give you some extra money (#1), you could very well be the only guy in your clinic who speaks it (#2), it's useful in a lot of different places (#3), and since the grammar is so similar to Spanish, it should hopefully be easy to learn (#7) and retain (depending on where you live/work).
1. Do you plan to stay in the Navy?
If so, you should know that there are certain languages for which you can receive a "Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus". Certain languages pay a lot, others don't:
404
2. Do you want to learn a language that a lot of people know, or be the one gal/guy in the room who speaks a uniquely helpful language?
As an example, a friend of mine doing clinical rotations in Saint Louis initially regretted not taking Spanish in college since so many of his patients spoke the language. Thankfully, enough of his peers spoke the language that he could always call for assistance. In contrast, almost no one spoke Russian -- so the few times they actually had to treat a patient from one of the former Soviet Republics, my friend was in a unique position to help (since he'd taken two years of it).
This is why I don't always agree with the default recommendation for all medical personnel to learn Spanish (though I wouldn't necessarily discourage it, either).
3. Do you want to learn a language that's useful in a lot of regions, or something that's useful to a particular community/people group you have a lot of interest in?
Take Bengali, the language spoken in Bangladesh and a number of states in India. By number of speakers alone, it's the sixth most popular language in the world. Yet its use is basically confined to a very specific geographic region. (The same thing for Korean -- not a lot of people outside of Korea speak it, but if you like Korean food, live around a lot of Korean-Americans, have a crush on some Korean girl, etc....)
Contrast this to French, which is used (in some version) throughout Europe, western and central Africa and several countries in the Caribbean -- or to the geographic spread of Arabic, which devout Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia can at least read.
4. How important to you is the language's association with cultural, economic, and/or military power?
Yes, lots of people speak Arabic, French, and Spanish. However, I would argue that the people groups who speak these languages are losing their cultural, economic, and military influence when compared to countries on the rise in Asia, specifically the People's Republic of China. You could counter that the use of Chinese is largely geographically concentrated in, well, China (it's not like they speak it in neighboring countries like Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam). However, it cannot be denied that China will continue to influence global trade and international relations for the near term (and that literate Koreans and Japanese also understand Chinese characters), so if this is important to you....
5. Do the speakers of your foreign language also speak English to a high degree of proficiency?
Germany is Europe's biggest economic power and its language is spoken throughout the continent. However, speakers of German generally tend to be proficient in English as well. The same is true for most Europeans -- from personal experience in Afghanistan, the various European members of ISAF (the French, Italians, Estonians, Danes, etc) get along just fine in English. This is also the case in many parts of Japan and Korea. Of course, if you go to the countryside, you'll find few English speakers. But again, if you're mostly dealing with fellow physicians or military officers, an overwhelming majority of them will speak English to some degree -- or at least enough for you to get by.
Contrast this to the variants of the Persian language. Whether you call it "Dari" (Afghanistan), "Tajiki" (Tajikstan and Uzbekistan) or "Farsi" (Iran, Qatar and the UAE), most of the speakers I've met -- with the exception of the very educated -- cannot speak English to any degree of proficiency.
6. Do the speakers of your foreign language also speak a "mother tongue"? How many people actually speak it as a native language, as opposed to a second language?
Take Swahili. Yes, it's an official lanuage in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, but most of the Kenyans I know are more comfortable in their "mother tongue" -- like Kisii -- or in English, since it's the language of international business. Swahili is just something that they learn in school and then never really speak at home or at work -- sure, 40 million people "speak" it, but less than a million consider themselves native speakers. I would argue that Hindi is somewhat similar. A lot of people speak some version of it (and Urdu, its cousin), but people in India also speak another "mother tongue". (Moreover, most Kenyans and Indians speak English -- see #5 above.)
7. How easy will it be for you to learn? Will you be able to immerse yourself in the language either through study or work abroad? If not, are there native speakers of the language in the area in which you live and work?
Finally, I would make a pragmatic argument for how easy it'll be for you to pick up the language and sustain proficiency. Arabic, Chinese, and Korean are notoriously hard to learn (they have the longest courses of study at the Defense Language Institute). Moreover, I would argue that you can't truly learn a language unless you're living it out everyday, and I would also argue that language is a perishable skill that will diminish over time in the absence of practice. So let's say you try to learn Chinese, but never really have an opportunity to live in China -- how proficient can you truly become? And let's say you do move to Beijing for a few years, and get so good at the language that you pass for a local. But then you return to the States and live in Omaha or Phoenix as opposed to San Francisco or New York. How are you going to practice with a native speaker? How much are you going to retain over time?
To answer your specific questions:
Of course it helps, but see #5 above.
Well, I would cite the Sicilian proverb that you should never start a landwar in Asia.... In all seriousness, I don't think there'll be a war in the World War II sense (or even the OEF/OIF sense), but I would bet my next paycheck that the US will be involved in some way shape or form in the Pacific for a long time. Thus, Chinese would go a long way (see #4 above). As for French, also a good bet -- the US military will increasingly shift to foreign internal defense/security force assistance and/or humanitarian relief and development. A lot of that will take place in the Horn of Africa (yeah, they speak French in Djibouti), but I also think we're going to start getting involved in the Sahel (yeah, they speak French in Senegal, Chad, Mali, etc).
Spanish, but you already speak that.
I would lean against Korean (see #3 and #5), Thai (see #3 and #7) and Hindi (see #3, #5 and #6).
My recommendation is that given your medical career, Navy service (however long that would be), and most importantly, the fact that you already speak Spanish, I would go with French for your third language. You may get the Navy to give you some extra money (#1), you could very well be the only guy in your clinic who speaks it (#2), it's useful in a lot of different places (#3), and since the grammar is so similar to Spanish, it should hopefully be easy to learn (#7) and retain (depending on where you live/work).
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Was "death on the line"?
I think you already know this, but Djibouti made me think of the French Foreign Legion 13th Demi-Brigade, which was based in Djibouti from 1962 to 2011 (when it was re-assigned to the UAE).
A comprehensive, excellent post. Bonne chance! Opa! Sláinte!
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Its basically 1:1 tutoring with someone in a 3rd world country via Skype. You pay the language school or tutor over PayPal, set up an appointment, and then they dial your account at the appointment time. It usually runs about 8 - 12 dollars per one hour lesson, and they email you course material and homework (you may also need to buy books). There are a ton of companies that do this.
I did it for Thai before I went on vacation there. The lessons worked really well. The vacation not so much, but great lessons. I've tried roestta stone too, I didn't get a lot out of it. It wasn't terrible, but its basically trying to learn a language via flash cards. It got a bit boring.
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Whoa shipmate! If you are smart enough to master your specialty and still have enough brain power left over to study a language, good for you! I would recommend medicine first, language second, but what do I know? All the middle eastern languages are a pain in the butt, but Korean is not too bad (once you get the format). Not too many Navy guys stationed in Korea, though. For money, go Farsi or Urdu. For practicality, go Arabic or Japanese. For ease, go German, French, or Korean. But if you really want to get ahead of the curve, go Madarin
Just sayin'...
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What specialty are you entering? There shouldn't be time for this sort of hobby in residency. If you are making time, you may still pass but you won't be as good ad you could be, doing research, etc. Focus on staying fit and getting less clueless.
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Its a 45 minute/day commitment. If that's enough to screw me I'm screwed in any event. Honestly you don't think the brain needs a little time away from medicine every day?
On a related note I found that doing this for Thai really helped my performance on wards. I have a serious problem with always running late, and doing this in he morning meant that while I was often late to he language lesson I was never late for work.
Anyway I'm goin to give this a shot after I finish the in service and step 3 in mid July. If it doesn't work I'll drop it.
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Residency is tough enough. I would not throw any time commitments on top of residency. Study study study Thai French can wait. Their are only 24 hrs in a day eat sleep work study and repeat.
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45 minutes a day is a huge commitment. Don't tell your PD if you really plan on doing this.
