Learning a New Language

HOla again.. just to share with u an interesting site that teaches a foreign language for free. Its called www.livemocha.com . u can learn a lot of languages here.french, german, arab.indonesian, tamil, hindi. And the courses ranges from beginner, intermediate to expert level..its also sort of interactive means u can chat or mail the other ppl who are master of the language u r trying to learn to help u out..or u urself can b a tutor to help those who need to master a language which u alrd hav.

right now ive finshed lesson 101 of Hindi..i thought it would come in handy if i wan to work overseas as most people alrd speak english..if i do meet singaporeans or indonesians or malaysians..ther is Malay and indonesian language..both which im comfrotable in. as of clinical school ive started catching up withmy cantonese.i can now understand a patient's history whenever my fren interviews one.and for tamil..im still shaky..need an interpreter.

the reason why i chose hindi was because there was no urdu(hindi is 90% like urdu). Urdu if u guys do not know is actually the official language of india and pakistan. because they have so many dialects and languages due to it multiethnicity, urdu is the lingua franca.IN fact it is also spoken by 50% of the ppl living in the UNited Arab Emirates.oh and not to forget..a minority of ppl living in Uk and USA are indian or pakistanis or afghanis:D

This i thought would really come in handy since being a doctor requires me to interact with evrbdy and knowing the language will help my patients to be more comfortable interacting and expressing themselves, thus making my job easy too. I do not need an interpretor, i do not have to worry if my interpretor is not translating the right word, i do not have to worry about the interpretor not knowing the medical jargons that he needs to use, and i can build trust with my patient through mastering their mother tongue:)

Besides, the more accurate the history.. the more accurate the differential diagnosis is, the provisional diagnosis,the physical examination, the investigations that are essential, and most definitely the treatment prescribed. This is doing justice to the patients who do not converse well in English. Doesnt mean if they are 'handicapped' in language, they are denied equal treatment compared to the rest..Thats how i feel about being a good doctor

now i realise why my 13 year old cousin brother who is residing in the US..a talented musician..ambitious to be a neurosurgeon since he was 3..has started learning mandarin, tamil and malay everytime he comes down to malaysia since he was 8. His parents were thinking far ahead for him. Multilingual ppl are always assets..anywher..