Language corner

I'm about to make a comparison between Malawi and the US, which is something that I had vowed not to do in this blog. Of course, travelling from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest is going to be a culture shock, but the differences between the terrains, the lifestyles and the healthcare systems are obvious. An entire blog of 'when you stand in Times Square and think about the powercuts in Malindi...well...yeah...' would get really old, really fast.

There is something I hadn't thought about before though, and that's the differing attitudes to language. In Malawi, there are two 'official languages', English and Chichewa. On top of that, there are several tribal languages - the one we were most exposed to was Yao. As far as I could tell, the diversity of language was treated as part of the fabric of Malawian culture. It wasn't unusual at all to be mutilingual. Very small children were able to speak to us in basic English. Although we had a serious language barrier with a lot of our patients in the village, this seemed to usually be a marker of poor access to basic education. After a while, in fact, I think that everyone found it amusing that it was taking us so long to pick up Chichewa. As far as I could tell, the attitude was 'everyone has a different first language, so if we can all make ourselves understood in a few languages then everyone can communicate.' Of course, I'm over-romanticising it a bit - the necessity for speaking English, along with the coming together of tribal languages is rooted in a difficult colonial history - but it's still a skill and an attitude to language that I very much admire.

To me, this intermingling of different languages is equally apparent in New York City. It's fantastic to wander around and hear people speaking Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Polish - diversity is part of what makes this city amazing. Yet, I don't get the impression that there's as much of an imperative to learn other languages as there was in Malawi. For those of us who have English as a first language, we always use the age old excuse 'I know it's lazy, but everyone speaks English.' While that is largely true, I think it goes beyond that. I think, both here and in the UK, that we are far too attached to the idea of a language hierarchy, with English at the top. We're very lucky to have the global language of business as our first language, but but perhaps that's just not enough of an excuse any more.

I'm completely guilty of this too - I love languages, but I've been a bit lazy about learning them. I just think it's time for a bit of a cultural shift. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Buenas noches amigos (I admit, I had to Google the spelling of that. I'm working on it.)

We'll turn Manhattan into a isle of joy...

New York City had a lot to live up to - I've been excited about coming here for the better part of two years. Somehow, however, everything has surpased my expectations. As you can probably tell from the lack of blog posting up until this point, Dan and I have really been getting the most out of the city. Ironically, the increased availability of electricity and internet access has coincided with a decrease in the amount of time that we have to update the blog, but rest assured - we're having an amazing time!

For the moment, I'm not going to detail everything that we've been doing in our spare time. I'll probably do a detailed description of the delicacy known as Korean fried chicken at some point, but I'm currently resisting the urge. Instead, I'd like to talk about medicine for a bit.

So that everyone is up to speed, I'm in New York doing a placement in paediatric (I still refuse to spell it the American way) endocrinology. If I'm honest, I was expecting to feel a bit smug about the UK way of doing things. Anyone who knows me and my 'liberal agenda' knows how attached I am to the NHS, and I am willing to admit that I came into this placement with a prejudiced view. I was semi expecting to claw my way to work through hoardes of people begging for health care while doctors inside the hospital feed grapes to rich people who are being carried around on sedan chairs.

Although there are significant problems with the US healthcare system (and several things that they do better than the UK), the similarities between the styles of medicine really took me by surprise. Here, in the UK and even in Malawi, the desire to make sick people healthy - as simple as it is - seems to run through at a very fundamental level. The methods are different, the obstacles are almost incomparable, but it appears to me that a lot of people across the world went into the medical profession for similar reasons.Whatever my observations about comparative healthcare and international health, the last five weeks really have cemented my respect for healthcare professionals, and I'm honoured to count myself among them.

In other news - I love people's reaction to my British accent. I know we're meant to find it annoying, but it's quite nice to be complimented on it as if it's some sort of skill. I think I've started milking it a bit, I may well start overdoing it if I'm not careful.

Pip, pip and cheerio chaps.