The US is a magnet for foreign-born professionals. The medical field is no exception with a large percentage coming from India. When we meet these professionals we often are not aware of what they had to go through to learn not only medicine but our way of speaking.
One such doctor, Vijay Rajput, is a surgeon trained in India, who came to the US because of the prodding of his wife’s parents. Although, he was licensed to practice medicine in India he still had to go through a residency program here. He found the American language and culture to be the most challenging part of his training.
“I remember my first patient encounter vividly. I went into the room and I asked the patient, ‘What happened?’ and he responded, ‘I passed out last night.’ In India this phrase means that the person had died so this statement was shocking to me. Clearly this patient was not dead; indeed, he seemed fine, but I had lots more questions.
And this patient threw some more curveballs, a sports metaphor I now use but didn’t know then. He told me that in addition to passing out, he also ‘threw up.’ An Indian physician understands only one term that describes this event: puking. I really did not know what ‘threw up’ meant. So I came out of the room confused and convinced that medicine was not for me. I went to the nurse and told her I had difficulty understanding what the patient meant. She responded with another curveball: ‘Don’t bother me. I’m having a bad hair day,’ but her hair looked just fine to me.”*
Dr Rajput has gone on to become a physician/teacher receiving many awards from his students.
*JAMA, December 5, 2012—Vol 308, No21 pg 2197