Languages for public health

[nico0313]

Hi all!

I am a freshman in college and I am falling in love with public health! I currently stay in Dallas, but my college is in the Boston area, and I am hoping to either end up in Boston, Dallas, or the Bay Area for an MD/MPH. I love to learn languages, and I am a native Spanish speaker with high proficiency in Portuguese. I am wondering if y'all have any suggestions of a language I should tackle next that would set me up well for healthwork in immigrant communities?

Some thoughts I have currently:

• Mainly debating between Arabic and Vietnamese. Arabic because many people from MENA are immigrating to the US and I predict this trend will only continue to increase. However, there are large Vietnamese communities in the areas I've listed above and I have a very basic knowledge of the language.
• With Chinese, I believe there are many doctors who can speak Chinese languages already, and considering the longer time to proficiency given my linguistic background, I feel like I could make a bigger impact by having knowledge of Arabic or Vietnamese.

I would leave to hear y'alls thoughts! I'm trying to get a head start on one language this summer and hopefully take classes next semester, so I'm all ears!

Thanks

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[rap15]

Hello!! I think that ANY language will be an asset, especially since you already know Spanish and Portuguese! I actually came here to suggest French, since it is commonly spoken in so many countries throughout Africa, and being proficient in French is really good if you want to work for the World Health Organization.

However, since you specifically are interested in immigrant health, I think that you should research the immigrant communities in the cities you're interested in living in.

I also think it's important to pick a language that you're passionate about - if you love learning it, it will be easier to learn.

I suppose I'm saying that any of the options you suggested are good ideas - just pick whatever interests you more

 

[Choсolate]

I believe that Arabic and Chinese are equally difficult, so it makes no sense to say that it would be more of an asset to learn Arabic rather than Chinese because of the longer time you supposedly said it takes to learn Chinese. Just look at the FSI informatics on the time it takes to master each language in each language group and you will see that they are similarly difficult.
Being a native speaker in an exotic and rather difficult language, I just want to add that learning such a difficult language between Arabic or Chinese, or even vietnamese, at such a late age should not be taken lightly. It is a lot harder and takes much more to learn than initaly people want to think about. I know people who have been learning my language since adulthood and for quite a while, and still, it just seems that they are still so rudimentary and basic.
Also, I agree with rap, French is another great option to think about as the population in Africa who speaks French I believe is rapidly increasing and thus gaining more importance.