A medical student writes: What the language debate misses, and why translating MBBS books to Hindi is easier said than done

Source– The post is based on the article “A medical student writes: What the language debate misses, and why translating MBBS books to Hindi is easier said than done” published in The Indian Express on 26th October 2022.

Syllabus: GS2- Education

Relevance– Languages issues in education field

News- The article explains the issues related with the recent move of the central government to translate medical books into Hindi language.

What are the arguments in support of translation?

There are countries like China, Japan, Russia and Norway where technical and non-technical languages are the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical courses.

Imparting education in a student’s mother tongue is effective for learning.

What are the issues with translation?

Fifty-two medical colleges, out of the total 170 colleges on mainland China teach in both Chinese and English. Chinese healthcare is also self-sufficient when it comes to research and protocols. Germany has availability of primary resources available in their own language.

We can not compare the status of English with German or Chinese. There are few resources available in Hindi that can provide job opportunities.

English allows dialogue with the rest of the world. The field of medical science is continuously evolving. It requires constant learning from research papers, articles and books. A sound system of translation is needed for it.

There is a need to properly understand the process of translation. The medical terminology remains the same. Only sentences have been translated for easier reading. These books are to be used as bridge books and not as replacements for the English books. They are designed to address the initial problems faced by students.

There is a lack of necessary infrastructure for translation. Professors and teaching staff need to be trained.

There has been no clarity on whether these translations will be incorporated as reading materials. Translating these books only once would not suffice. Newer editions of books require constant updating.