Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
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DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 10/7/2012 8:07 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 164
First: 31/5/2012 Last: 8/10/2012 |
Latin language has been the common language for communication between doctors for ages. In my country of origing it was and still is a mandatory part of the Medical Degree. In contrary the doctors around me know zero Latin. I wonder why English doctors have no idea of Latin? Is it not part of their education? |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 10/7/2012 9:48 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Medical practitioners are no longer well rounded individuals with a broad educational base. They were in my father's generation (he studied Latin, French and Ancient Greek at high school and university). I did Matriculation Latin and French and Ancient Greek at university. There are exceptions. The curriculum and educational systems have sent gifted willing sheep down a narrow race into a medical feed lot where they will be content for just a while. In my opinion, literature, languages, music, i.e. the Muses are lungs of the human soul. Few doctors have lungs as they apoptosed in adolescence. As result they exist now on the heart-lung machines of lingua medicina. The result is burn out, disillusionment and boring posts. But as Leonard Cohen sings, "But I could be wrong." P.S. Apoptosis was made famous by my professor of patholgy, Prof Kerr who devoted his life to its study. They thought he was a nutter when he started. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 10/7/2012 10:50 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2047
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
I did Latin at school, to O-level standard. I resented and hated having to learn a Language that even my teachers admitted was spoken only by certain religionists. The literary marvels that it was said to posses were in my experinece limited to borirng and inaccurate accounts of military campaigns. I mean, "Gallia in tres partes divisa est"! Not any more, Julius, not any more. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 2:04 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
I think John's response is predictable. Medicine streams those with a scientific and mathematical bent. Trying to explain the beauty of Vergil's poetry or the excitement of Xenophon's Anabasis to such is a lost cause. This is a different brain. We need both in medicine and without which we would be even more boring. P.S. Vergil or Virgil. It has two spellings. I am glad for the riches Latin and Greek have brought me. One day my ship will end its return voyage to my own Ithaca, fully laden and not with gold. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 4:11 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
It is erroneous to assume that because you have a medical degree you are an intellectual or a polymath. There are a lot of flat footed doctors and even more boring ones. it therefore does not surprise me that the subtleties of an inflected language might escape them. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 9:09 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2047
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Sorry if I offended you, Odysseus! My reply does show my anguish and possibly my latent Aspergers. It does show my abysmal spelling, esp. of latinate words that displays how badly I attended in class. I've gone on before about the English language, and Shakespeare, and my love for that, and how poor the English are at other langauges. Your ancestry give you an additional heritage, Odysseus. There are other languages in the world, such as computer langauges, and once I learnt BASIC (and machine code) to a high level. The computer savants say that "BASIC rots your mind", in that its structure gives the user mental pathways that make learning others, C++, Pascal etc. more difficult. Could it be that English, uninflected as you say, with multiple, illogical spellings, structures and meanings that have to be learnt, rots the mind? John |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 10:30 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 959
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
In the legal world Latin crops up frequently. But it would not help my client if I was fluent in latin. It certainly may be interesting and stimulating but the frequent latin words/phrases eg. sub judice can be learnt quite easily to ensure their use is purposeful and correct. I dont think that todays lawyer is at any disadvantage if he/she does not communicate to the court in latin. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 11:34 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 25
First: 11/7/2012 Last: 28/9/2012 |
Would learning the Latin or Greek roots of medical terms make us better doctors? Better communicators? Perhaps we’d be more rounded people, but I would rather spend my time learning a language that I could use every day. |
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Re: DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
posted at 11/7/2012 2:14 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1178
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
I went to council school, so never had the opportunity to learn Latin, and thence enjoy the elegance of Virgil et al. I wish I had learnt it, not because it would have been useful in medicine - I learnt enough to differentiate long and short muscles in the anterior forearm - but because being able to read, and understand, it must be, for want of a better word, lovely. It would have enabled my understanding of other languages, I'm sure, but to be able to read great works in their original text must be envigorating. I wish I could speak latin in the same way I wish I could play the piano, because to be able to do so is a gift only really appreciated by those who cannot. |
Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » DOCTORS - not using Latin language? Why?
