Does Latin make medical terms easier to understand?
Well I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to be an anesthesiologist when I grow up. I'm currently taking Spanish as my foreign language. I want to switch to Latin because from my understanding, most science words are derived from Latin, thus making medical terms easier to understand because I would have a gist of their root words. Would it be worth it, to switch? "I also heard Latin is hard to learn, but if it means easier for me in med school then why the hell not.
Public Comments
- it is not worth the switch.you will learn all the derivations you need during your studies in med school.
- Most medical terms come from Greek. Latin is easy to learn. It helps the student to learn analytical and logical thinking and to write grammatical English with a larger vocabulary. I highly recommend it.
- Yes, Latin makes medical terms easier to understand. It also makes English easier to understand. It is not that difficult to learn. However, you are likely to have Spanish-speaking patients but not likely to have Latin-speaking patients. If you are going to be an anesthesiologist, you will not be talking with your patients much anyway, though, compared to other specialties, such as family practice or internal medicine. Your college will probably have a course on medical terminology that you can take to learn the Latin and Greek roots of words used in medicine. In the meantime, you can start teaching yourself by getting a Medical Dictionary and reading it (I am serious - this is a great way to start learning medical terminology.)
- Yes, it helps: You can study Latin for free here http://latinum.mypodcast.com There is a also an audio Latin course there aimed at med students. It is all free.
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