English Program - in Chinese

Yup, that's right, in Chinese.

Today I had Human Anatomy. For that class we have two professors. One is from China and one is also international, but not a native English speaker. For the first 45 min or so the international professor presented some very basic material, in English. I was even feeling pretty impressed with myself because I was able to understand most of what he was saying.

Then, they switched professors. At first I thought maybe it was just my hearing, I couldn't understand a thing, then I realized that the gentleman was speaking Chinese! Having been promised that this was a fully English program, I was very shocked. As the lesson progressed, I could tell that this professor was going into a lot more detail than the first professor because of his gestures and what he was pointing to in the PowerPoint slides. Needless to say, I am very disappointed. The greater part of the class, more than 2 hours was in Chinese.

I did talk to the one professor and he pointed out that these students, although studying in English, have to complete their Chinese exams in order to practice medicine in China. It is a very good point.

I did have the opportunity to meet a student that is in the sixth year of the regular medical program, not the fully English program. (The full English program is only two years old.) She was very good in English. She had just returned from residency overseas. She was very impressive, so they must be doing something right.