The I Studied A Completely Useless Language (for Medicine) Thread

[SRK85]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Im taking Japanese and I took french in high school. Or J'vais parler francais a l'ecole. Yea I know I suck with french its been a long time. But what is a useful language for medicine?

 

[farikanok]

eshbikoum ya nas, maku wahid minkoum yetkalam arabi?


😴

 

[durfen]

Huh?

I've taken German and Organic Chem, and never noticed much of a link...I guess I squandered my advantage of knowing German while I studied chem...

Yeah as much as the language hawks want to fill their departments with students, languages have no real relation to performance in any subject. What language you did take (if you liked it that is), however, tells something of your personality.

Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.

By the way, I'm being sarcastic.

 

[Anastasis]

Yeah as much as the language hawks want to fill their departments with students, languages have no real relation to performance in any subject. What language you did take (if you liked it that is), however, tells something of your personality.

Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.

By the way, I'm being sarcastic.

You missed the classical languages (Latin/Greek) or is that just self-explanatory? 😀

 

[DrZee]

thats hilarious !! 🙂

Yeah as much as the language hawks want to fill their departments with students, languages have no real relation to performance in any subject. What language you did take (if you liked it that is), however, tells something of your personality.

Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.

By the way, I'm being sarcastic.

btw I have heard Condi Rice speaks russian fluently, I wish she knew some arabic too, maybe it would help improve the current events in world affairs??

 

[DrZee]

I dunno why but something about the fact that a lot of Organic chemists were german and pioneered the field makes me believe it wouldnt have hurt to know some german while taking O chem. For Example, I always mixed up the EZ system for naming but if you knew some german then it would have helped a little.

The E-Z notation system in O chem is an abreviation of german terms I was told. " Z (from the German zusammen) means together and corresponds to the term cis; E (from the German entgegen) means opposite and corresponds to the term trans." I am sure there are other examples but this was useful to remember.

Huh?

I've taken German and Organic Chem, and never noticed much of a link...I guess I squandered my advantage of knowing German while I studied chem...

 

[durfen]

Let's have a JackieMD type list why don't we?

How does a language reflect on your personality? Add to the list, remove the quote tags.
Languages:
Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.
Latin/Greek - Nerd, or you went to grammar school, which means you're British.....Nerd.

 

[durfen]

thats hilarious !! 🙂

btw I have heard Condi Rice speaks russian fluently, I wish she knew some arabic too, maybe it would help improve the current events in world affairs??

Apparently she tried to shut down the Middle-Eastern studies department at Stanford.....this is fourteenth-hand information though.

 

[durfen]

I dunno why but something about the fact that a lot of Organic chemists were german and pioneered the field makes me believe it wouldnt have hurt to know some german while taking O chem. For Example, I always mixed up the EZ system for naming but if you knew some german then it would have helped a little.

The E-Z notation system in O chem is an abreviation of german terms I was told. " Z (from the German zusammen) means together and corresponds to the term cis; E (from the German entgegen) means opposite and corresponds to the term trans." I am sure there are other examples but this was useful to remember.

Physics: for entropy: W - wahrscheinlichkeit.

 

[Nerdoscience]

I took French in High School, but was a linguistics major, so I can figure stuff out pretty quickly. One of my residents when I was med student made me round on the women on Labor and Delivery who only spoke Spanish, without an interpreter. That sucked, but I now have a working Spanish vocabulary, as long as all I have to say are things like, "Relax your legs; I'm going to examine your uterus," or, "Any blood from your vagina?" Very useful in my career as a Neurology resident. Oh, wait. Not useful at all.

 

[TM2006]

whats middle persian? I speak the modern variety spoken in Iran, but can also understand the afghan, tajik, and multiple other varieties of regional farsi accents cuz their basically the same language. Whats middle persian though? Is that the one written in cuneiform or something cuz Im pretty sure farsi as is spoken today hasnt changed in over 800 years or more because the poetry written back then is still pretty clear to me minus a few words here and there.

Middle Persian is essentially Pahlavi (which is a dead language). It use to be the language spoken by Iroonies before the Arabic invasion. Sounds cool but I swear it was one of the most painful experiences of my college experience. 🙁

 

[LodiDodi]

eshbikoum ya nas, maku wahid minkoum yetkalam arabi?


😴

itakalam arabiya lekin afhem foosha faqat. bada'tu dirasaatee fi jamia' berkeley munthu sinatain. afhem qaleel min el amiyya el falestiniya wa darastu el luga el hebriya (yahoodiya ?) bes lestu yahooda. arju an tefhem hathahi kataba. maa assalama 🙂

 

[farikanok]

itakalam arabiya lekin afhem foosha faqat. bada'tu dirasaatee fi jamia' berkeley munthu sinatain. afhem qaleel min el amiyya el falestiniya wa darastu el luga el hebriya (yahoodiya ?) bes lestu yahooda. arju an tefhem hathahi kataba. maa assalama 🙂

ya halabik, ya halabik 🙂 inta (inti?) minen bialasil? iftahemit kul sh'ai 😉
wa sawfa natakalm bi alarabiya al fus7a! lol it sounds much cooler

P.S.
it's 3ibri, mish "yahoodiya" 😀

ma3a alsalama wa alaman

😴

 

[durfen]

ya halabik, ya halabik 🙂 inta (inti?) minen bialasil? iftahemit kul sh'ai 😉
wa sawfa natakalm bi alarabiya al fus7a! lol it sounds much cooler

P.S.
it's 3ibri, mish "yahoodiya" 😀

ma3a alsalama wa alaman

😴

For the rest of us, I will translate

LodiDodi: Hi, I speak Arabic also.
farkanok: You do? I'm going to sleep.

 

[farikanok]

For the rest of us, I will translate

LodiDodi: Hi, I speak Arabic also.
farkanok: You do? I'm going to sleep.

you can now go work for CIA/NSA 😀


😴

 

[Summer Sweet]

Now I feel bad because I can only speak English with confidence 🙁

Once upon a time, I planned to study Spanish, French, Latin, Chinese, and Italian in college. Spanish because I live in SoCal, Latin because a lot of words are derived from it so it might be helpful, Chinese so that my parents won't hate me lol, and French and Italian because I wanted to travel Europe.

And then, science classes happened and I find myself having to time to to go through the 3 weeks worth of newspapers I just subscribed to, that are still in their plastic baggies, in a box, by my front door. Lol so much for being multilingual!

 

[mshheaddoc]

The only useless language is elvish b/c its hard to completely translate everything unless it has to do about the "one ring to rule them all". 😛 Luckily I don't know that much of it.

I'm shooting for ASL and spanish. I studied Spanish in high school and college and I knew bits of sign language from some friends who were deaf in my middle school.

 

[ellifino]

Although, to be fair, I am knocking around this idea of joining Doctors Without Borders at some point in my future, and all the 'stans still speak Russian for "official" use. It's easier to get fluent in Russian than it would be to pick up all the individual dialects.

But will it help me in med school and in practicing in the US? Not so much. 🙂

 

[mshheaddoc]

I want to learn russian. 😀

 

[durfen]

I want to learn russian. 😀

Yeah, Russian's a nice language, at once emotional and calculating, but the regional slang's gonna kill ya.

 

[Duckwizard]

Languages:
Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.
Latin/Greek - Nerd, or you went to grammar school, which means you're British.....Nerd.
Ku - work for the UN as an interpreter

 

[mshheaddoc]

Although, to be fair, I am knocking around this idea of joining Doctors Without Borders at some point in my future, and all the 'stans still speak Russian for "official" use. It's easier to get fluent in Russian than it would be to pick up all the individual dialects.

But will it help me in med school and in practicing in the US? Not so much. 🙂

boo on individual dilects. What language doesn't have them these days though?

 

[durfen]

Languages:
Spanish - You're the practical type
French - if male, metrosexual. if female, high-maintenance.
German - engineer, or otherwise INTJ type. Either that, or you wanted an easy A, but it's only easy if you think that way.
Japanese - You're a businessman, or you work in Hawaii.
Russian - you wanted to work for the CIA/NSA, but Russia ceased to be a threat.
Arabic/Farsi - you want to work for the CIA/NSA, so you dropped Russian.
Latin/Greek - Nerd, or you went to grammar school, which means you're British.....Nerd.
Ku - work for the UN as an interpreter

First make the current interpreter 'disappear'. You can do this because you know Arabic and work for the CIA. Or just cancel his credit cards since you know Farsi and work for the NSA.

 

[velo]

A thread for those who learned a language in high school/college that is completely useless in medicine.

Me: German.

Wie geht's euch?

eh, its hard to study a "useful" language for medicine. Latin would have been nice, but you can pick up the medically useful latin pretty quickly anyway.

I feel as though its a big myth that its "helpful" to study something like spanish in HS/ugrad. Maybe part of this is bias because of the fact that we don't have a large hispanic population here, but its also that we are actually discouraged from talking with a patient in a language we are not fluent in (ie. don't bust out your limited medical spanish, or worse yet spanglish, only speak spanish to a pt if you are fluent). In those situations we always call in an interpreter, or use this snazzy little machine with two phone receivers that connects you and the pt to a remote 3rd party interpreter.

 

[durfen]

eh, its hard to study a "useful" language for medicine. Latin would have been nice, but you can pick up the medically useful latin pretty quickly anyway.

I feel as though its a big myth that its "helpful" to study something like spanish in HS/ugrad. Maybe part of this is bias because of the fact that we don't have a large hispanic population here, but its also that we are actually discouraged from talking with a patient in a language we are not fluent in (ie. don't bust out your limited medical spanish, or worse yet spanglish, only speak spanish to a pt if you are fluent). In those situations we always call in an interpreter, or use this snazzy little machine with two phone receivers that connects you and the pt to a remote 3rd party interpreter.

I would love to see an interpreter get back at a doctor in this way:
Patient: Como estas, Dr. Martin?
Interpreter: You're an idiot, Dr. Martin.
Dr. Martin: What?
Interpreter: Muy bien.

 

[MSTP?]

x

 

[LodiDodi]

ya halabik, ya halabik 🙂 inta (inti?) minen bialasil? iftahemit kul sh'ai 😉
wa sawfa natakalm bi alarabiya al fus7a! lol it sounds much cooler

P.S.
it's 3ibri, mish "yahoodiya" 😀

ma3a alsalama wa alaman

😴

ana bint min wilayet california, min medinet Lodi. (laa 3rif itha enti ta3rifeena medinet Lodi bes ana minha. min el sa3ab an ifhem katheer min el amiyya. waliday la yatakalamaani el arabiya fi bait fa... kalami wa quwaa3idi leesa jayida.

sa tusejeleena fii jami3a attibb hathahi sina ow tastadifeena lii qabool fi jami3a attibb? hathahi sina sa intahii dirassetee fii berkeley wa sa adkhool fii jami3a attibb assina el kaadima.

inshallah katabee wa quwaa3idee sa7ee7. 😳

ma3assalama

 

[lkychrms19]

Excusez-moi, mais... French is very helpful for medicine in American cities where there are large populations of French-speaking immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. In hospitals near Harlem for example, there are often French-speaking patients who can not communicate in English. And in the DC area, there's a clinic just for French-speaking immigrants. In general African immigrant health is an area of healthcare that needs improvement and language services, particularly French, is one thing that is needed.

Also to join Doctors without Borders, French is asked for, almost required, because of all the field sites with French-speaking populations.

So for urban and international health, le francais est utile!

 

[farikanok]

ana bint min wilayet california, min medinet Lodi. (laa 3rif itha enti ta3rifeena medinet Lodi bes ana minha. min el sa3ab an ifhem katheer min el amiyya. waliday la yatakalamaani el arabiya fi bait fa... kalami wa quwaa3idi leesa jayida.

sa tusejeleena fii jami3a attibb hathahi sina ow tastadifeena lii qabool fi jami3a attibb? hathahi sina sa intahii dirassetee fii berkeley wa sa adkhool fii jami3a attibb assina el kaadima.

inshallah katabee wa quwaa3idee sa7ee7. 😳

ma3assalama

mashallah, taktibeen al3rabi kaanaki tatakalum bi6alaqa 😉 ana ma kount an a3rif aena Lodi, lakin ba7athtu 3anha fi Google wa wajadtu inaha sagheera jidan! inaha qarya, lesa madina! j/k lol

ataqadam laki kul al tahaniyat li qabooliki fi kuleat al6ib 😀 inshallah, saufa tanja7i fiha bisihula. bi alnisba li, ana qadamtou li kuleat al6ib hathihi al 3u6la wa al aan 7awla takmeel al awraq al thanawiya (secondaries). saufa abda' akhir sanat dirasati fi aljami3a hithi al khareef.

hal tadkhulina kuliat al6ub hathi al khareef aw al khareef al qadim? wa hal walidatika min assil 3arabi wa min alsharq alawsat?

fi aman al-llah

P.S. ana walad, lesa bint 😀 lol