Cross-cultural communication （62）　

62) As long as you have passion,
In spring 2015, I attended a lecture on the use of intra-articular ultrasound to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in its earliest stages. The lecturer was a young doctor in his early 40s, but he spoke with confidence and in an easy-to-understand way, explaining the mechanism of ultrasound and introducing cases where a diagnosis was made using ultrasound when the patient's blood tests were normal. According to the lecturer's biography introduced by the chairperson before the lecture, he had learned this intra-articular echo technique while studying abroad at a university in Barcelona, Spain. I was interested in the lecture itself, but I was also curious about how he had managed to learn the technique at a Spanish-speaking university.

I asked him about this at the reception, which was held after the lecture and was a buffet-style party. He replied, a little bashfully, “It wasn't really that big a deal, like studying abroad. I was taught how to do intra-articular echo in detail for about two months.” He had been interested in this topic before that, and had been trying to learn it himself. One day, when he attended an international conference on this topic, he had the opportunity to talk with a Spanish woman doctor who was said to be an expert in intra-articular echo.

He was so impressed by her skill that he asked if he could learn the technique from her, and she agreed without hesitation, inviting him to come to Barcelona. He had never studied Spanish before, so communication was quite difficult. He could only speak a few words of Spanish to talk to patients, but he could manage to communicate with doctors in English. The facility was well known in Spain for its intra-articular echo examinations, so he was able to gain a lot of experience in just two months. On the final day of his training, he passed the exam given by the doctor in charge of the training program, and was officially certified.

As this anecdote shows, it is not the language that comes first, but the passion for the work (or play in childhood) that comes first. Therefore, I think that language education from the one-sided love of parents from early childhood is a hundred harms and no benefits.

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