So I'm a non-EU citizen studying in an EU country (CR). I was wondering if I'll have chances to work in the EU after my medical education. Although I'll still be a non-EU citizen, I should be getting my permanent residence within a year.
Here's my question: I'm currently considering Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Ireland. Europe is obviously by 2nd option (US is the first) but it's still my backup. So I see how so many EU doctors keep moving from country to country. But how do they meet the language requirements?
Out of these countries, I know that getting in Switzerland is almost impossible. Ireland is also pretty hard but one of the advantages I have is that it's an English speaking country...which really makes things much more nicer for me.
I mainly want to consider one (or two at the max) EU countries to have as a back up because I can't learn Dutch, French, Swedish, and Norwegian fluently, hoping that I'll get into one of the countries. So I would like to know which country is more accepting of non-EU citizens studied in the EU, looking for training programs in one of the surgical specialties.
This is a really tough question to answer. First, Norway isn't in the EU, which presents some challenges in and of itself.
I was wondering- is it a matter of time to not be able to learn a Scandanavian language? I was considering learning at least one myself, since according to the Scandavian Union's constitution, one has the right to speak any Scandanavian language in any country of the Union, but I don't know how this applies to the workplace. I know for a fact many from No and Se residents cross the borders for work, but again, such things as whether they actually speak the language of the country they're in, a mixed border dialect, or their own language is still in question. Since I speak German, I would research first into which is most closely related to German (as being part of the Indo-European languages), which Icelandic, Finnish and Estonian are further departed from than Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Oddly enough, I receive articles in the latter three, and they are intelligible to a good extent, to varying degrees. English can be used in these countries due to their extremely high English literacy, but one still needs the native language.
I think you're in Cz, no? You've probably seen stuff that looks totally foreign when written, but when one sounds it out, it turns out to be derivatives of English. I see that a lot in many countries. That certainly helps bridge a lot of gaps.
My school also offers further language studies and medical-specific courses in language for students. Are they offered?
So if the "mutually intelligible" and mutually exchangeable aspect of the latter three holds, I would look into learning the easiest language for myself, then use that to break in, while learning the language of the region while on the job.
Dutch is somewhat mutually intelligible with German, though I think they understand more German than a German would understand Dutch. The gap is that there is a lot of Anglicization in Dutch, but spelled completely drunk. The German part is German, but spelled drunk, with an absence of articles (thank god!). I've considered learning it, but they have an extremely high literacy rate in English, and my German is still too shaky to try and learn a closely related language.
CH- it's a take your pick, with regard to which language and Schweizer Deutsch is so far off, it's not even funny. They do have their own words, and there is no written form other than hochdeutsch, but the sounds are so far departed, that when Swiss are interviewed for German TV, they often need subtitles, even if they make an effort to try and speak hochdeutsch. I have to admit, I do like and respect it because it's more melodic and flowing than the harsh hoch deutsch. Austrian German is also similarly melodic, but very close to hoch deutsch.
It's pretty difficult, with respect to the languages, but basically research a lot, and if you made it through med school, I don't see any barriers in learning another language, aside from time and interest.
As far as the residency, I wish I could help more, but I'm an EU citizen, so it's easy for me to make my way around, even to NO and slightly less difficult for CH, though the latter is instituting restrictions on German physicians coming over now. I'm also curious to know more about such things as restrictions within the EU and EEC areas on license recognition from within EU/European schools. That's one of my interests in either relearning French or going for a Scandinavian language- I could travel and work nearly anywhere in Europe.
