Professional English
I have writen about this before, but I want to do it again after my stint at a Madrid Hospital and the lessons I learnt there. Most of the cardiologists who saw me were young, Doctors eager to practice their English with a defenseless patient. Some had a better mastery of the language than others but they all shocked me with their nonchalant usage of "wanna" and "gonna." Contrary to my character, I kept mum because, being young, they believed those contractions showed a better and more colloquial usage of the English language. Besides, I was at their mercy. However, would you trust your Spanish-speaking physician if he said "mu bien", for "muy bien" or "ta güeno" for "está bueno"? This object lesson should never escape us: an MD, an engineer or a professor must always use professional and serious English -or Spanish- all the time. One of the young doctors said to me: