Hi, all. I have a question. I am going pre-med in my studies this fall at The College of New Jersey, and will be enrolled in Army ROTC. I was wondering if anyone has any feedback on what languages are most valuable for someone in the medical and military fields combined, or if it is all the same. My top considerations right now are Spanish and American Sign Language for practicality's sake, but Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Latin, and Russian are also offered. I didn't know where else to seek advice from, so any insight is appreciated. Thanks!
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GoCubbies
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Being fluent in Spanish will help your application should you decide to apply to a couple of the medical schools in Puerto Rico that accept non-Puerto Ricans. When applying to medical school, you will need to apply VERY broadly so think about PR if you can speak/read Spanish. There are 4-5 medical schools in PR and only 1-2 will accept students who are not native PR or have some connection to PR.
The other time language came up was when I was seeking a job in the Army special operations community. The first question the senior Army doctor in the community asked me was... What foreign language can you speak? If you can speak Spanish and you get selected for the community, then you'd probably get assigned to 7SFG(A). As for me, I got selected for an assignment to 1SFG(A) even though my foreign language proficiency was well below elementary level.
After that, I don't see where another language would truly help. You certainly won't get any foreign language proficiency bonus.
You could say speaking Arabic, Dari, or Pashto may help but who knows where the Army will deploy in the future.
The other time language came up was when I was seeking a job in the Army special operations community. The first question the senior Army doctor in the community asked me was... What foreign language can you speak? If you can speak Spanish and you get selected for the community, then you'd probably get assigned to 7SFG(A). As for me, I got selected for an assignment to 1SFG(A) even though my foreign language proficiency was well below elementary level.
After that, I don't see where another language would truly help. You certainly won't get any foreign language proficiency bonus.
You could say speaking Arabic, Dari, or Pashto may help but who knows where the Army will deploy in the future.
Is your plan to apply to Medical Schools and an Educational Delay when you graduate and commission?
Think hard about going ROTC while working toward Med School, there are other options, you can check into HSSP while you are in college. If becoming a doctor is your main goal then you may want to look at all your options. If you go ROTC then make sure you're comfortable with serving in any of the 17 Branches within the Army if you're unable to receive the Ed Delay or are not accepted to Medical School.
As far as languages, your course load will be hard enough in whatever premed path you take, adding a language on top of ROTC may stretch you a bit thin.
rotcadet2021
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I just finished my MS1 year taking Arabic. If you are going to take a critical language keep in mind it is an immense amount of work and you'll need to put in a lot of studying if you want to be able to actually retain what you learn.
@abbyrosu ,
Have you ever studied a foreign language?
@Jcleppe is absolutely correct. Premed and ROTC is enough of a challenge. Don’t complicate your life. If you learned a foreign language in high school stick to it or at least stay in the same language family. My DS spent junior year of high school in Brazil (Portuguese), bluffed his way through AP Spanish his senior year after never having a Spanish class. He spent a gap year in Taiwan and tested out of all the conversational mandarin at his university. So he took a semester of Italian in as a relaxer. Later he started Arabic.
He assumed they might be valuable to the Army but he studied them for the love of it. Those skills proved to be useful in his Army jobs, but he got those jobs for reasons other than his language skills. In fact, he is currently with 7SFG (A) in a support role. His next higher in command speaks no Spanish.
Study the language because you want to and for the love of it. The rest will take care of itself.
Best of luck.
Have you ever studied a foreign language?
@Jcleppe is absolutely correct. Premed and ROTC is enough of a challenge. Don’t complicate your life. If you learned a foreign language in high school stick to it or at least stay in the same language family. My DS spent junior year of high school in Brazil (Portuguese), bluffed his way through AP Spanish his senior year after never having a Spanish class. He spent a gap year in Taiwan and tested out of all the conversational mandarin at his university. So he took a semester of Italian in as a relaxer. Later he started Arabic.
He assumed they might be valuable to the Army but he studied them for the love of it. Those skills proved to be useful in his Army jobs, but he got those jobs for reasons other than his language skills. In fact, he is currently with 7SFG (A) in a support role. His next higher in command speaks no Spanish.
Study the language because you want to and for the love of it. The rest will take care of itself.
Best of luck.
unkown1961
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Check out the ROTC Project Go website to see what languages have overseas summer immersion programs. My son was in Estonia last summer after Field Training and is in Kyrgyzstan this summer studying Russian. But you can see what languages ROTC supports through Project Go and that might help your decision.
It may be a bit easier then Chinese, Korean, or Arabic, but just don't expect it to be easy, it's a far cry from Spanish or European languages.
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^^^^ Uhhhhh.... Russian is a European language. Probably the toughest one, but once you learn the pronunciation you have a fair chance of reading and understanding at least some of it. A working knowledge of the Greek alphabet can be helpful.
Those other European languages that use fewer vowels can be a bit tough too. I was talking with a Serbian named Jms Bnd once. He told me he wished they had more vowels because then he had a shot at being James Bond.
Those other European languages that use fewer vowels can be a bit tough too. I was talking with a Serbian named Jms Bnd once. He told me he wished they had more vowels because then he had a shot at being James Bond.
Russian, Latin, Greek and German are all "declined" languages in which the form, or "case," of a word changes in accordance with its function in the sentence (as well as with gender & number). For example, Russian and Latin have six distinct cases.
For your purpose, the study of Latin especially, and German or Russian if you can swing it, would be very beneficial.
First, for anatomy & physiology alone, an understanding of Latin would greatly simplify and accelerate the process of memorizing the many terms, nearly all of them from Latin (or Greek), that you need to have committed to memory so you can make rapid decisions under pressure as a practicing physician who cannot waste time consulting an online reference.
Second - and this is not understood by people who've never studied a "declined" language such as Russian Latin, German or Greek - you will develop a much more subtle, deeper understanding of the relationship between logic and language if you can see the relationship between form and function when it comes to language and semantics.
Many doctors fail in the crucial area of understanding what their patients are trying to tell them. The better your communication skills, the more effective & successful you will be as a practicing clinician.
I cannot recommend highly enough the study of a declined language, be it Latin, Russian, Greek or German.
For your purpose, the study of Latin especially, and German or Russian if you can swing it, would be very beneficial.
First, for anatomy & physiology alone, an understanding of Latin would greatly simplify and accelerate the process of memorizing the many terms, nearly all of them from Latin (or Greek), that you need to have committed to memory so you can make rapid decisions under pressure as a practicing physician who cannot waste time consulting an online reference.
Second - and this is not understood by people who've never studied a "declined" language such as Russian Latin, German or Greek - you will develop a much more subtle, deeper understanding of the relationship between logic and language if you can see the relationship between form and function when it comes to language and semantics.
Many doctors fail in the crucial area of understanding what their patients are trying to tell them. The better your communication skills, the more effective & successful you will be as a practicing clinician.
I cannot recommend highly enough the study of a declined language, be it Latin, Russian, Greek or German.