Hey guyz, i'm planning to study at the Charles First Faculty of Medcine in this october...i just hope i'm not in for a huge culture shock... :shock:
hey adela...Odkud jste, adela? Vy jste Češka? Studuješ také na Karlova universitě? (sorry excuse my poor czech...i'm just tryin my best to learn the lang.)... you scared me for a bit there when you said that a "few" ppl have done well....is it due to the culture shock, or due to inadequate hard work, or just the addiction with the partyin n stuff like that?
Hey, jsem Češka a pocházím z města u Prahy, ale studuji v Brně - Masarykova univerzita. No, don´t worry about any culture shock at all! I meant that some Americans find something about the Czech rep. odd, but I´ve heard them generally say they like it here. Regarding the studies..I can´t say whether medicine is harder than in the US but I think medicine is hard everywhere. Well, it is good if you know some locals to guide you round. Im sure you´ll find some here or you can ask me, but I spend most of the time in Brno, so it won´t be so easy to meet.
Or (if Adéla is your friend): Odkud jsi, Adélo? Ty jsi Češka? Studuješ také na Karlově universitě? Not so bad for a beginner. It seems that your English spelling is even poorer than your Czech. :wink:
hey adela, thanks a lot for the help. and i would be more that glad to meet you if at all you happen to get back to Prague anytime...well about the medical school being harder in U.S....its actually not coz they do spoonfeed a lot in the U.S. unlike those in the rest of the world and i've heard that the first couple of yrs. in Charles Univ. is quite tough as they weed few quite a few.... :cry:
What does that mean - spoonfeed? Well, that´s obvious that in the first two three years a lot of people drop off...but it is not so that everyone would be kicked off. I think that some people just realize this is not what they had expected, what they wanted. Im convinced that if you really want to work hard, you won´t drop off.
ahh Troll, i do thank you for the compliment (as least for a beginner level)...but about my spellings? well i just do that to save time....(note: in the past one post i've have made no errors which goes to show that the spelling errors in my other posts were due to my being lazy)... anyway i am quite excited about going to Prague but i'm equally nervous as i dont know how intense the culture shock will get to me. But i really like the language a lot....infact what i wrote to adela in the beginning was all self-taught (through online ofcourse)...i just dont know how the czech, i'm sorry to be more specific, the czech in prague would reciprocate it...i mean i dont know what i would do if they laughed at my accent or just replied back to me in english?? btw are you currently staying in prague?
If this was to me, I am currently staying in Prague. From my experience, if you try to speak Czech, whatever your level is, the Czechs will be surprised and all excited to help you.
hey adela, spoon-feed actually means the teachers hold the students hand from the first to the last day of college (well i mean that in a figurative sense)....the profs. in europe are in general quite strict and they seem to expect some standard from medical students, if not all in general (this is true in UK as i grew up there).... but i'm willing to give it all the effort coz i know i can make it if i work hard....and besides the czech girls certainly seem to be a motivating factor (that till you keep would distance and dont loose focus).... bt other than that...i'm just really excited...bt i'm not expecting CZ to be like America as if i do...i'll only be in for nothing but disappointment....
That´s a nice expression. No, you´re right. Nobody holds your hand in here. You have to find out everything. The best thing to advise you is to start making friends from the very beginning - everyone helps you then when you need.
With regard to spoonfeeding in medical school, it's my observation that overemphasis on memorization of facts, symptoms, etc. seems to have resulted in many US doctors lacking basic critical thinking skills. If not for medical scientists (physicists, chemists, biologists, biomedical engineers, etc.), I think advancement in medicine here in the US would have long ago stagnated. Note, this is coming from the perspective of a scientist (not in a medical-related field) who has taught many a pre-med in science, and met more than a few doctors who seemed to rely too much on canned knowledge, rather than applying logic to their work.
well sova i do agree with you when you emphasize on the need for doctors to apply logic...bt i dont agree with the rest...you see the basics (pre-clinical courses like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry) have to be memorised and whether you like it or not...its the truth...there's no logic in these subjects (except for the fact that you can correlate between the subjects).... and i should also tell you that doctors from Europe and Asia (India, Pakistan) haven done much better in the America rather than the fellow americans (believe me...i had a hard-time dealin with this but its a fact)...in fact i've spoken to quite a few american doctors who have graduated from European med schools and they said that the fundamentals (memory memory memory!!!) they learned in these schools were so extraordinary that they learnt the subtle differences in no time (ie. during residency)....the only reason why one wouldnt recomemmend a european school is the environment, lottss of course-work and assignments, and the strict discipline which many americans are not used to....(that's the reason why many american students doin their med in europe quit after a couple of weeks or maybe a couple of months..as they cannot cope with the stress)...bt this is not vice-versa ie. with foreign medical graduates....(note: i can say all this only because i have a library full of doctors, all settled in the US bt are foreign medical graduates...)
hey adela, i know the students there are expected to be very independed and i think that's very important as one gets a clear picture as to what they want to pursue...and i can do the same...nothing like it...and yes i will try my best to make friends with ppl from all over (as i believe that this will help me experience less of a culture shock than what i'd experience if i were all lonely).... by the way, you study medicine in Masaryk University....I've heard its a nice place...bt you must be missin prague rght? (the mysterious angelic prague, with an excellent comination of history and a social life---partyin...) :wink:
No, I don´t study medicine! I study languages-philology. But I know a couple of students of medicine. Well, you´re asking if I miss Prague when Im in Brno. Not at all. I like Brno better!!
oh ok...i've heard that Brno in face is the second largest city in the Czech....thats quite cool....i hear so much about the spring pic-nics and so forth...can't wait to get there....and just to get a headstart in Charles, i've already started reviewing some of my subjects so that i'll be able to understand better when i get there...and i'm also doin some online czech lessons....which seem to be helpful
I see you´re really all excited about going to the Cz.rep. That´s great. Knowing some Czech will make your life easier. And you have to visit Brno for sure :wink:
oh yes...in general i get quite excited whenever i'm in europe...i mean every since 6th grade, i've been visiting some or the other european country (some for education purposes ofcourse)...spain, germany, italy, netherlands, UK, and this time Czech Republic... yes i'm trying to learn some basics of czech...its quite an interesting language for me to learn...considering that i'm crazy about learning languages (infact, wanted to become a linguist at some point of time)....brno, hradec kralove (i have some friends there), pilsen (i guess for the pilsner urquell) are definitely on my list....
Shreypete, I didn't mean to say that memorization isn't essential to medical training. Quite the opposite, particularly in the subjects you mentioned. Rather, having taught physics to many a pre-med, I've seen that although the students were quite capable of memorizing formulas, they more often than not were unable to apply the correct formula to a given problem, or else to apply the right formula correctly. This seems indicative of a lack of analytical skills. These seems to carry over into the context of clinical practice, where given a list of symptoms, doctors tend to follow the same prescription for discovering the ailment, e.g. you have these symptoms, so let's try A--if that doesn't work, we'll try B--if not, ask about symptoms C and D, and try E or F. It's funny, but it seems to be very similar to some experiences I've had with computer tech support for some software companies (of course the techs must have a preprinted flow chart sitting in from of them, whereas the doctor must memorize the procedure). I do understand that much of this is thrust upon doctors due to restrictions on time per patient from insurance companies, since the doctor often doesn't have time to do a thorough analysis of the patient. But it definitely has an impact on the practice of medicine, particularly among general practitioners, where the doctor has to handle the first visit for a wide variety of ailments.
