Creating an Online Resource for Students in Shanghai

Dr. Keith Williams is a board-certified internal medicine physician, who is currently in a general surgery residency program at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.  Dr. Williams spent the past year volunteering for Project HOPE at various program sites – including several in West Africa, India and China.  As part of his year of volunteering for Project HOPE, Dr. Williams taught anatomy at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China in early 2013.

While I was an instructor in anatomy in the English Medicine class earlier this year, I developed a professional relationship with Dr. Wenjin Wang.  My professional relationship with Dr. Wenjin Wang, the chief anatomy instructor, was productive in many ways.

Over the course of the semester, Dr. Wang and I compiled an online anatomy terminology resource, which included voice recordings in both Chinese and English of the glossaries of the systemic and regional anatomy textbooks utilized by the school.  This compilation required twice-weekly recording sessions in which we spent about two hours reciting terminology in a soundproof studio on the medical campus.  Our intent was to provide a readily available online resource that would assist the medical students in learning the correct pronunciation of anatomy terminology in English (much of which is actually Latin). 

Overall I was quite impressed with the students in our class.  Although they were modest, their English abilities were quite good.  Realizing that there were times when they did not fully understand the content of what I was saying, I made a special effort to rephrase my statements to address their confusion.  I also repeatedly emphasized that it was important for them to inform me when I spoke too rapidly or when they did not understand, which Chinese students are not typically accustomed to doing for cultural reasons.  During the course of my participation, I had a very amiable relationship with the Department of Anatomy and the International Affairs Office.  Dr. Wenlong Ding, the Dean of the Department of Anatomy, and Dr. Yong Zhang, the Director of the International Affairs Office, both very appreciative of my contributions, provided gracious hospitality throughout my stay.  I must also extend my gratitude to Gu Shuping, my Project Hope liaison, and Shuyan Xu, a secretary in the International Affairs Office, for all of their assistance and for their friendship.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in Shanghai, and I sincerely hope to have the opportunity to participate in this program again.