Session Information
Session 10B, The role of higher education in health-related education.
Papers
Time:
2004-09-25
09:00-10:30
Room:
Chair:
Elinor Edvardsson Stiwne
Discussant:
Elinor Edvardsson Stiwne
Contribution
The paper focuses on the use of Latin language by the Estonian physicians and the opinions of the students of medicine about the tuition of Latin in Estonia. Latin has been the language of medicine in all the West European countries for centuries. Today the tradition to write recipes and diagnoses in Latin has survived only in the Baltic and the Scandinavian countries, the physicians of most European countries have turned to the modern languages. Still, the vocabulary of European languages is full of Latin words or word stems. It is obligatory for the students of medicine at in Estonia to have a short course of Latin. Medical Latin is quite different from the Latin taught to the philologists. Some years ago discussion was started in Estonian newspapers whether it is absolutely necessary to use Latin as the language of medicine or not. The main argument of antilatinists is that every patient should understand the name of his or her disease. But there is a problem in Estonia, that it is difficult to replace Latin by Estonian as well. If the medical terminology was in Estonian, it would maybe be a favour for Estonian patients but a disservice to physicians themselves. Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language where the Latin base, which is so normal to Indo-European languages, is missing. Although there are many loans from Latin and other foreign languages in Estonian medical terminology, there are still many words which are based on Estonian or its different dialects and have nothing in common with the Latin base which normally exists in all the Indo-European languages. A doctor knowing the terms only in Estonian will not be able for international communication. As the problem is complicated and yet no solution has been found to it, I have done a research into this subject. I have prepared a questionnaire and carried out the inquiry amongst the students of medicine of the University of Tartu. Its purpose was not to study the position of the present designers of curricula for medical studies, but rather to learn the attitudes of the students of medicine towards Latin. The reason for choosing students as research subjects were the statements of some Estonian professors of medicine, that Latin is a very unpopular subject among the students and therefore not worth to be taught. More specifically, I have questioned the students of therapeutics and stomatology about their motivation and interest for studying this ancient language. I also wanted to know, what is the function of Latin in medicine according their opinion and whether the tradition of writing diagnoses and recipes is justified in the modern world. The results are quite interesting, as Latin does not seem to be a complicated and troublesome subject for the students, as some professors of medicine, who demand the replacement of Latin by some modern language, use to claim.
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