Bianca Writes From Massachusetts

Dear Grammar Project,

I'm a doctor from the Philippines and I'm here now in Massachusetts, trying my luck at getting a residency over here. I just wanted to share my thoughts about grammar and the medical field. Truly, one becomes a good doctor by being highly skilled and knowledgable about diseases and their treatment. Most of the time, English profiency (as well as Filipino proficiency) takes the backseat amidst all the things we already need to study. Somehow, even if your doctor has horrible grammar, if he treats you and you get well, who cares, right?

However, I've come to notice that having good grammar, speech skills and English proficiency are a definite plus in our field. When you have command of your language, you can easily explain all the medical mumbo-jumbo in layman's terms without missing a beat. It gives a doctor a definite edge if he or she can speak confidently in any given language.

From experience, I'm lucky to have been brought up in a bilingual household. I spoke purely in English until I went to grade school where I was exposed to Filipino. I believe I picked up quite well. Having mastery of these two languages helped me a lot during my med school years, especially when it came to dealing with patients. In my 4th year, we were exposed to the charity patients at UST who spoke only Tagalog. It was a struggle at first, explaining everything in Tagalog, but since I had a good background, I eased into it quickly. When I got to Makati Medical Center, most of the patients spoke in English and speaking the same language and speaking it well built rapport between myself and the patients quite rapidly.

When I got to the U.S. though, I silently thanked my parents and schools for teaching me good grammar. My accent is what you would call "neutralized" as I have a weird habit of picking up the accents of the people around me.

The last test of the US Medical Licensure Exam is a practical exam. There are twelve separate rooms with patients in them. Basically, we interview, examine and diagnose each patient in fifteen minutes. This is when my grammar and English skills were crucial, and it definitely made me a lot more confident when I was taking it. There were a couple of doctors of varied Asian and Middle Eastern origins also taking the exam, and I could see them struggling with their English. My seatmate, who was from the U.S., commented on how good my English was and that I didn't have an "Asian' accent.

As a whole, in medicine, content is really more important than grammar and language proficiency. However, in a place where your demographic is mostly English-speakers, proficiency and grammar are essential. It helps to build a doctor-patient relationship and it eventually leads to your patients trusting you more because they feel you're on their side.

Thanks a lot and I hope you guys at Grammar Project get more support because what you're doing is great!

-Bianca, M.D.