Pécs offers medicine in English, German, and Hungarian, does studying in English create any disadvantage when doing clinical training in Hungarian hospitals?

valuemd (Admin)

Clinical rotations at Pécs take place in Hungarian public hospitals. This thread covers the language challenge English-program students face on the wards, what Hungarian language support the school provides, and whether students who learn basic Hungarian find their clinical experience significantly better.

ashoknair6644 (Alumni)

I am seriously considering Pecs for the English program and the one thing that keeps worrying me is the clinical part. Like the theory years make sense, everything is in English, professors speak English, fine. But then you go into a Hungarian hospital and patients only speak Hungarian. How bad is it really? Can you function at all or is it just a constant struggle? Would love to hear from people actually on the wards right now.

liamt902 (Alumni)

@ashoknair6644 (Alumni) I am in fourth year and just finished my internal medicine rotation so this is fresh for me. Honestly yes there is a language gap and I will not pretend otherwise. Patients speak Hungarian, nurses speak Hungarian, and a lot of the paperwork is in Hungarian. But it is not as catastrophic as it sounds because the supervising doctors almost always speak English and they kind of bridge the gap for you. You are observing and learning most of the time anyway so it is manageable.

jamalrichards6154 (Student)

So I was in the exact same position as you before I came here and I spent a lot of time stressing about this. What I can tell you now from actually being here is that the university does give you a Hungarian language course from year one but let me be straight with you, it is basic and it is not enough on its own to handle clinical situations. The students who do best on rotations are the ones who put in extra effort outside of class to learn medical Hungarian specifically. Things like symptoms, body parts, basic instructions. That stuff makes a real difference.

omarfoster8812 (Student)

I want to share something a bit more specific because I think the general answers can be misleading. The disadvantage is not the same across all departments. In surgery for example a lot of what you do is watching and assisting and the language barrier is less of a problem because actions speak louder than words on that ward. But in psychiatry or general practice where you literally need to take a patient history and have a conversation, not knowing Hungarian is a real issue. A resident or attending will often translate for you but you feel quite passive and you miss a lot of the nuance.