Doctors And The Patient example essay topic

Throughout the entire world, there are thousands of different languages used. They all have a great deal in common but are made distinct by their sounds, dialects and slang. In the movie "Wit", three specific characters each use language uniquely and exemplify how its usage can be influential. This essay will ascertain the idea that the way a person speaks and listens affects their personal and professional status in society. The first character who depicts an authoritative style of speaking is the patient. Being a scholarly University professor, her language consists of prodigious words that were not extremely relative in day-to-day conversations.

She set high standards for herself and expected her students to do the same. Her passion and dedication to her work left her with no social life although she excelled intellectually. Her intellect did not help her very much when she learned that she had cancer. Lacking social skills, the patient decided she was going to fearlessly go forth with intense chemo therapy, without any friends or family by her side. She found it difficult to relate to the nurses and doctors. The nurses were not as intellectual as she was and the doctors spoke jargon focusing on their own priorities.

One particular doctor of hers contributed to a few award moments. Performing a pelvic exam, the young doctor seemed just as uneasy as the patient. He had been a former student of hers and was just as passionate about his job as the patient was of hers. She studied and researched books and poems exactly how the young doctor studied and researched his patients. He had no emotional feelings toward the patient and so his body and verbal language came off as uncaring. He was interested only in learning and curing the patients disease.

The way that the patient was actually feeling, was not important to him. The patient noticed that when anyone, especially the young doctor, would ask her how she was doing, they never reacted to her response. It was a routine greeting that was expected to be followed by a routine answer. When the patient questioned the doctor about why he asked such questions, he replied that a class in medical school required they learn bedside manner. He also expressed his lack of interest for this class and labeled it as a waste of time. This reaction of the doctors was one of the elements that led the patient to analyze her own priorities.

She was gradually coming to the realization that the way this doctor was treating her, was the way she treated her students. Her initial respect for the doctor began to lessen and increase on other people. As stated earlier, it was difficult for the patient to relate to people of her own academic standing, let alone anybody. She did not respect the third character very much but it was the nurse who used the most simple form of language. The nurse was more of a gentle character who expressed genuine concern with how the patient was actually feeling. The one quality the nurse had that was different from all the other characters, was that she listened.

She listened with no judgement and responded appropriately. The patient was not the only who had the least amount of respect for the nurse because the same was true of the doctors. The patient viewed the nurse as the woman who measured her daily vomit levels. The doctors saw her as someone who did their dirty work because she did not have the same academic degree as them.

At a professional level, she was treated as though she was clearly of a different status by both the doctors and the patient. As the movie went on, the patients needs changed and the nurse was the only one who was there for her. The chemo therapy was beginning to take a toll on the patient and she craved human affection. With the doctors treating her like the experiment she was, she did not receive any satisfaction from them. Still having no friends or family visit her, she was getting down on herself. For the first time, the patient was able to speak simple words and feel comfortable around the nurse.

They talked and laughed, which ironically became the patients last conscious moment of her life. The irony accentuates the epiphany that being relaxed and using simple words gives her more satisfaction than using large words that sound like jargon. All three characters conversed in English but had different styles and dialects. Not one character advocated that their dialect was right or wrong.

The movie "Varities in English and How They came to be", discussed how the usage of language can determine a persons status in society. In the movie, Indian students and British professors explained two different ways English affected their personal cultures. The Indian students traced the influence of English in India to the time when Great Britian was ruler. They said that English is the most important factor for their success for any career. If an Indian speaks English, they are viewed as being in a higher status than those who do not know English because they are more educated. They are able to advance in society and expand their careers or lifestyles to a global level.

In Great Britian, an accent determines what status a person is in society. If they speak with a particular accent, they are considered to be more or less educated. The same is true in the United States comparing southern accents to western slang. All of these examples relate back to the movie "Wit", and how the words and language a person chooses to use results in the way they are treated. There are many influences other than accents or word choice and they are discussed in the movie "Varities". Television influences a culture and their dialect by representing an entire language.

With the help of satellites, this influence is greater because it is viewed throughout the entire world. Other influences are more technical such as computer terms and slang. Computer jargon are like medical terms because both can be considered its own language. Any hobby, sport, or city will have its own words and different ways of using them.

The importance all of this, is that all the different words, dialects, and accents are English and the words that are spoken will ultimately influence they way one person thinks of another. When communication becomes necessary, jargon can be put aside and the language barrier ceases to exist. Personal and professional languages become inter-twined and people are judged according to the way they speak or which words they choose. The question lies within the speaker and whether or not they choose to speak to an audience to meet their unique needs or use jargon that could be potentially uncommunicative.