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    Opinion

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    John Lebiz

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    Opinion

    Uploaded by

    John Lebiz
    4 views1 page

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    4 views1 page

    Opinion

    Uploaded by

    John Lebiz

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    What OPINION

    Talkin
    You g
    ?By D
    r Jo n
    athan
    Tan, Edit
    orial Board Member

    In the medical profession, the repercussions of a rapidly ageing and greying population
    are all too real. Enter the foreign-trained doctor. Who better to save the day?
    However, communicating in a land where people speak at a breakneck pace, with
    confusing acronyms, and words from different dialects thrown in for good measure, can be
    challenging to say the least.
    Of course, if you are charming and have an exotic angmoh accent,
    adding a “lah” behind everything you say is more than enough to set
    the aunties and nurses swooning. That’s the cheat code to making
    yourself understood in Singapore, or so says my trauma consultant. Alas,
    for lesser mortals, it is important to have a more in-depth grasp of
    Singlish, medical version 1.0.

    read an electrocardiogram? Time to Lastly, some simple words to express


    write one! yourself with.
    • KIV: better do it anyway, it’s only a
    matter of time. • Suay: did you eat bao (that’s a
    • DIL/DDIL: prepare not to sleep whole other lesson) – why so many
    tonight. resuscitations on call?

    {
    • PFO (prepare for operation): can be • Shagged: not a good thing, it’s how
    To start off, some medical terms to help used for the uncle with the fracture, you feel after being suay.
    you get through that first ward round. or that pretty nurse/medical • Paiseh: when you can’t set a plug and
    student/house officer (HO) taking your HO can.
    • Pang sai/pui/jio: basic bodily care of him. • Heng: no one asked you any questions
    functions that will make your during the grand ward round.
    surgical consultants’ day. Next, key descriptors to gauge what • Shiok: you get to operate on the case
    • Tiah/sakit: excellent, now you your colleagues and seniors ACTUALLY you PFO-ed!
    know what “pain” is respectively in think about you.
    Hokkien and Malay, good luck with Congratulations, you’ve now
    getting a pain score.
    • Koyok: helps the above (will make
    you popular with anyone above 65).
    • Sell koyok: something you do before
    • A bit the slow/blur/buay zi dong:
    your work is being given to the other
    medical officer for a reason.
    • CMI (cannot make it): maybe it’s time
    completed a crash course in Singlish!
    Time to try some of these lines on the
    next patient you see. There’s nothing
    more endearing to a patient than their
    {
    getting consent from patients for to consider another specialty. doctor making an effort to connect and
    elective surgery. • Champion: don’t be mistaken, this is communicate, in a way that puts them at
    • Jiak/makan: things you don’t want used sarcastically. ease.
    the patients to have done before • Steady: you’ve impressed them.
    surgery. • Zai: time to apply for residency!
    • Tau hin/tau gong gong: vertiginous or • Chio/yandao: congratulations! Nice Dr Jonathan Tan is
    non-vertiginous giddiness – could on-call meals are coming your way! currently a resident at the
    mean anything. National University Hospital
    • Thambi: that’s your job!
    Orthopaedics department.
    • Siao: time to “Refer Psych”. • Arrows: embrace them, that’s what
    • Blue letter: can’t remember how to thambis do!

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