Medical Mandarin

Conversational Chinese
for Medical Students

Inde207A/208A/209A Elementary Medical Mandarin

Inde207B/208B/209B Intermediate Medical Mandarin
Inde209A/209B/209C Advanced Medical Mandarin

Instructor & contact: Xiao Wang & Dr. Samuel So

xiaowa@stanford.edu

Course Introduction:
Elementary Medical Mandarin is a combination of medical themes and language
topics. It is designed to help MD students and other medicine-interested students to
acquire some basic conversational abilities in Chinese, and enable them to deal with
patients or clients in Chinese in a healthcare environment, and better doctor-patient/client
communication.
Intermediate Medical Mandarin is a conversational Chinese series open to MD
students and other students who are interested in medical mandarin. It is designed to
prepare students to speak and listen effectively in a Chinese speaking medical
environment. It aims to bring students to a level of intermediate proficiency and finally a
competence with independent problem-solving skills when using Chinese in a medical
environment.
Advanced Medical Mandarin students will access advanced professional medical
vocabulary, conduct medical research, and engage in discussions in Chinese with the help
of the instructor. The course aims at a proficiency level of medical interpreting or doing
other independent work in Chinese. Students are also assisted in doing a project or
projects related to a specific field of medicine.

Students can register for 1 unit or 2 units. 1-unit students fulfill courses requirements
by attending one-hour lectures , doing homework, weekly review tests and final. 2-unit
students are also required to do the announced clinic visit/shadowing in the hospital, and
participate in outreach cultural activities and one-to-one model interviews in each quarter.
These practical experiences allow students to not only to use their skills, but also to
understand the major health issues facing Chinese Americans today.

Each course runs 3 quarters long. Both courses are handled in Pinyin when written
Chinese is involved. Elementary students are not required to have any language
preparation in Chinese to take this course. Intermediate students need to have a language
proficiency equal to at least one-year study of Chinese at college level.
Course Content:

Elementary Medical Mandarin

Language Topics:
1. greeting 2. How is the health of your father?
3. Who are you? 4. What’s your nationality?
5. What’s your name? 6. Where do you live?
7. Do you have a headache? 8. What disease dos he have?
9. He is from Stanford Hospital 10.When did you come to hospital?
11. You have a severe headache, right? 12. Have you had surgery before?
---a comprehensive patient review

Medical Topics:
1. body parts 2. obtaining general patient history
3. obtaining key medical information 4. obtaining social history/diet
5. infectious diseases/child health 6.pregnancy/birth/breast feeding
7. postnatal care/6 week well-baby check-up 8. physical examination
9. sexually transmitted diseases 10. respiratory problems
11. medication 12. survival medical Chinese

Intermediate Medical Mandarin

1st quarter---Survival Medical Mandarin

1. warm-up: Pinyin review & practice
2. introduction: introduce your work as doctor
introduce your hospital
introduce your body and your body in a sick situation
what's wrong with your patients
3. asking/telling exact symptoms: general, head, eyes, ears, nose and throat, mouth, neck,
breasts, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urinary
4. asking/telling exact symptoms : obstetrical and gynecological, sexual history,
musculoskeletal, neurologic, endocrine, psychiatric
5. patient review
6. checking patients
7. writing prescriptions
8. hospital labs
9. comprehensive patient review
10. situational conversation practice
11. student-initiated topics
12. review

2nd quarter---Comprehensive Medical Mandarin

1. warm-up: accessing Chinese online and using online Chinese dictionary
2. your body
3. consulting a doctor
4. medical and other health care personnel
5. hospitalization
6. medical departments and facilities
7. some medical supplies and appliances
8. some common medications
9. diagnostic examinations and tests
10. some useful terms
11. interviewing patient with a specific disease
12. student-initiated topics& review

3rd quarter---Expertise Medical Mandarin

1. warm-up: searching Chinese medical information online &self-learning tools
2. the head---head, eye, ear, nose, mouth, and throat
3. heart, lung
4. digestive system
5. urinary system
6. obstetrics and gynecology
7. muscular and skeletal system
8. nervous system
9. immunization
10. some diseases and surgical systems
11. self-study: a disease
12. case studies &review