it is known that medicine is advanced in non-english speaking countries, such as france, italy, ukraine, russia, germany, japan, korea, thailand, israel, and spain, where it is taught in their languages, and its doctors are well aware of the importance of mastering the english language so that they can continue to see the latest developments, which are the main source of communication in english-speaking countries such as america, canada, britain, and australia.
also, the medically developed countries, which are not english-speaking, have wealth, deep medical experience, and the ability to communicate with the latest developments in the world of medicine, in contrast to the well-known heritage of their hospitals and laboratories.
we have absolutely no right to compare ourselves with them and say that as long as they studied medicines in their languages, and succeeded, so we will succeed also because we basically lack all the elements of teaching medicine in our arabic language.
it is not enough for a country to translate medicine into its language, in order for it to have, within years, a distinguished medical staff.
we belong to third world countries, or underdeveloped, and teaching medicine to our students in arabic will overthrow all the achievements that have been made so far.
the translation of medicine that took nearly half a century was nothing more than a waste of time, money, and effort, and often has nothing to do with medicine because the majority of those who study medicine in arabic are unable to understand its meanings, which are very difficult even for an arabic language teacher, so how about a government high school graduate?
the proof that arabization was a waste of time and money is that almost no one ever heard of their dictionary, which was issued in 1973.
therefore, it is better to continue teaching medicine in the practical language, which is english, and not leave it to a method that is already more difficult.
on top of what that means severing the connection of those who learn medicine in arabic with all medical developments, almost daily, and severing their connection to any seminars, courses, internal and external, and lectures, which are often held in english.
we hope that those who took over the administration of the center for arabization of medicine recently, and for whom we have the utmost respect, will they benefit us from what the center has accomplished over four or five decades. and did it really take all this very long time to complete their dictionary?
are they confident that the hundreds of thousands of arabic language, expressions and designations that have been used will already be fully known and understood by those who have recently graduated from high school?
i also hope that they will conduct a survey among kuwaiti doctors to find out the extent of their “knowledge” of the existence of this center in the first place after all these years have passed since its establishment, and the spending of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on it, and the extent of their approval of the translation project, basically?
how will the center translate developments in the world of medicine on a daily basis, and inform medical students about them, firsthand, and after their graduation?
dr. khaled al-saleh, in his response to our article on the arabization of medicine, states that learning medicine, or science in general, in the mother tongue enables a person to understand his subject in a more creative way.
this is true, and we support it, but it is not necessarily in medicine, and not exclusively in our case. learning in the language of the state is effective, but it requires -- in medicine in particular -- a high level of education in that country, in addition to its civilizational and technical progress.
the advancement of medicine in france, for example, did not happen in an environment isolated from the rest of society, but rather it is a part of it, and the virtuous doctor has only to give us the medical progress of france, italy, and germany, and then take his comfort in translating whatever terms he wants into the arabic language, and until then it is preferred that the situation remains as it is.
it is the least harmful situation, compared to what it seeks to implement. we have no doubt that the dear doctor will not advise anyone to receive treatment in a country that, half a century before others, arabized medicine, knowing that learning it in the mother tongue does not necessarily mean that a person will be able to understand his subject in a more creative way.