Breaking Down Language Barriers

When Samson Wong was a teenager, he accompanied his grandmother to the doctor to serve as her translator. Though he grew up speaking both English and Cantonese, he found himself at a loss when trying to explain the doctor’s diagnosis to her. “Though I’m pretty fluent, I didn’t know how to say ‘pancreas,’ ” he explains. When Wong became a medical student at NYU, he enrolled in the School of Medicine’s student-run Medical Chinese program. Now he can tell you the Chinese word for pancreas, as well as many other organs in the body.

Medical student Samson Wong, research technician Inn Ling Eng, Elizabeth Lee, R.N. (left), and medical students Phoebe Lu and Kevin King (right) learn common Chinese medical terms and phrases to aid their communication with Chinese-speaking patients.

The program, recently made part of the School’s Master Scholars Program, was launched by the Dean’s office five years ago in response to the growing number of non-English-speaking Chinese patients who had been showing up at Bellevue Hospital. Designed for those who already have a good grasp of Mandarin or Cantonese, the program helps medical personnel overcome the language barrier they often encounter when trying to diagnose and treat these patients. Bellevue now has a separate program that is aimed at beginning speakers of Mandarin.

The 13-class evening course, taught by NYU language instructor Janet Lai, covers specialized vocabulary and phrases needed to, say, get a patient’s medical history or explain a diagnosis. Each class focuses on one system of the body. Wong and classmate Cindy Liu, who are this year’s co-coordinators of the program, collaborate with Ms. Lai on developing each lesson plan.

Liu and Wong are also working with Ms. Lai on developing a Web site featuring common medical terms (www.med.nyu.edu/medchinese). If, for instance, you want to know how to pronounce fei ai (Mandarin for “lung cancer”) you can click a button to hear a recording of the term. “We want to make these terms accessible to everyone,” says Liu. “It makes a big difference to the patients if they feel comfortable and understood.”