Comment by simonask

Comment by simonask 2 days ago

3 replies

Well, the problem is that what you are advocating is also that knowing Latin would be a prerequisite for studying medicine, which it isn't anywhere. That's the equivalent. Doctors learn a (very limited) Latin vocabulary as they study and work.

You are severely underestimate how far you can get without any real command of the English language. I agree that you can't become really good without it, just like you can't do haute cuisine without some French, but the English language is a huge and unnecessary barrier of entry that you would put in front of everyone in the world who isn't submerged in the language from an early age.

Imagine learning programming using only your high school Spanish. Good luck.

nitwit005 a day ago

You don't need to become fluent in Greek and Latin, but if you want to be able to read your patent's diagnosis, you're absolutely going to need to know the terms used. The standard names are in those languages.

And frequently, there is no other name. There are a lot of diseases, and no language has names for all of them.

  • simonask 12 hours ago

    Sure, you can also look them up though, because it is a limited vocabulary.

    Identifiers in code are not a limited vocabulary, and understanding the structure of your code is important, especially so when you are in the early stages of learning.

numpad0 a day ago

> Imagine learning programming using only your high school Spanish. Good luck.

This + translated materials + locally written books is how STEM fields work in East Asia, the odds of success shouldn't be low. There just needs to be enough population using your language.