Currently over 200 foreign students are learning medicine in Qingdao. European students prefer traditional skills such as acupuncture and massage.

    Nowadays from time to time we can see foreigners in white doctor’s overall walking in haste in Qingdao hospitals. As the medical treatment level of Qingdao large hospitals improves, over 200 foreign students come to Qingdao to study medicine every year. In and out of classrooms, teachers give lectures in fluent English. Foreign students learn wholeheartedly and use their profession and passion to move patients. Some of them even start learning the Qingdao dialect and they are deeply branded with Qingdao.

    Overseas students from a dozen of countries come to Qingdao to learn medicine

    About foreign students learning medicine in Qingdao, the largest numbers of overseas students are in the Department of Medicine, Qingdao University. From 2006, the Department of Medicine, Qingdao University started to enroll overseas students for the clinical medicine (lessons given in English) undergraduate course. Currently overseas students learning in Qingdao include undergraduate students and also postgraduate students. Currently there are over 200 overseas students learning in the Department of Medicine, Qingdao University. The students are from a dozen of countries. They need to spend 5 years learning in Qingdao. In the first 4 years they learn in school. In the last year they practice internships in the Affiliated Hospital to Qingdao University.

    Rajan, an overseas student who used to be an intern in the Affiliated Hospital to Qingdao University, has already obtained American physician certificate and now is furthering education in America.

    Overseas postgraduate students can speak Qingdao dialect

    For overseas students, language is the first barrier. In the Department of Medicine, Qingdao University, overseas students have Chinese course in the first year. Because Chinese is relatively difficult, it is not very ideal for these students to master Chinese. It is also a challenge for teachers to guide students amid busy and sophisticated medical matters. According to Cao Caixia, the deputy director of the Education & Training Department of the Affiliated Hospital to Qingdao University, in order to enable students to communicate effectively with patients, the department added free simple Chinese courses in clinical medicine. The ability to speak Chinese and the exotic appearance open a door for the communication between overseas students and patients. “If overseas students can communicate with patients, they are very popular and patients are glad to tell about their situations. Previously I had two students named Sha Xi and Fan Ku. One is in department of endocrinology; the other is in the department of respiratory medicine. They have pursued their master degree in Qingdao and can speak Mandarin and even the Qingdao dialect from when they stayed in Qingdao for a long time. Patients like them very much.” According to Cao Caixia, considering the language level of overseas students and to help them to better conduct internship, the Affiliated Hospital to Qingdao University arranged a Chinese medical master student who is also working during the internship to partner with every overseas student.

    Most foreign students come to study traditional Chinese medicine

    Among overseas students and doctors who come to Qingdao to study medicine, a large part of them are there for the traditional Chinese medicine. Since 1999, Qingdao Haici Medical Group started to have personnel exchanges with the Holland Qingbai Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Every year, 30 to 35 overseas students and doctors come to Qingdao every year to learn traditional Chinese medicine. “Qingdao Qingbai Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine recruit students from all over Europe, so students are from all European countries. They all sign up for the course voluntarily. Some are students to learn traditional Chinese medicine, some are doctors from community hospitals who take questions they encounter in their work, solve their questions as well as enhance their knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine.”

    Every July, these foreign students and doctors study and exchange their ideas for over half a month in Haici. They choose the course according to their interest such as acupuncture and moxibustion, traditional Chinese pediatrics, traditional Chinese internal medicine, and pharmacy. Lu De said: “They learn aside when doctors visit patients at home. They also follow Chinese doctors to make the rounds of the ward. Students have flexible choices and it is also very demanding for teachers. If he thinks the course given by the teacher isn’t what he wants to study, he can propose and make a change.” Besides the cooperation with the Holland Qingbai Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, many medical practitioners from America, Japan, Australia, and South Korea come to Haici to learn traditional Chinese medicine in the form of further education. Till now, Haici Medical Group has successively received over 300 person times of foreign students and doctors to Qingdao to learn traditional Chinese medicine. Ma Xiaoting

    (Photo 1: European students are studying acupuncture. 2. Wang Xudong, a dental surgeon from Qingdao Municipal Hospital, and his three Thailand students. )