Coming to Japan with no foreign language skills, 6 years later, Dinh Nam graduated from medical university and passed the medical license exam with a score in the top 10%.
Nguyen Dinh Nam, 26 years old, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare (IUHW) in Japan and passed the medical practice license exam in Japan in March. He is currently a resident physician at IUHW Narita Hospital, Chiba City.
"6 years passed so quickly but finally, I achieved results after a long process," Nam shared.
Nam took a photo with Professor Akatsu on his university graduation day, March 9. Photo: Character provided
In 2017, while a first-year student at Hanoi Medical University, Nam won a full scholarship in association with IUHW. In October of that year, he went to Japan, starting his study abroad life.
The biggest difficulty for a former student majoring in Biology at Bac Ninh High School for the Gifted is the language barrier.
Before officially starting school, international students have 4 months of Japanese language study at school. On the first day of class, Nam did not understand what the teacher said, while some of his friends had studied in advance and were able to catch up with the lesson.
"I worry every night," Nam said.
While getting used to Japanese, he also had to learn English to communicate with teachers and friends. Seeing his friends around him speaking fluently, even knowing 4-5 languages, Nam felt he was falling behind.
According to Nam, learning a language takes time and results are not immediate. After not learning for the first few weeks, he began to doubt the path he had chosen. "I wanted to give up," Nam recalled.
However, living among the international student community, he told himself that Vietnamese people cannot give up. Moreover, Nam had to convince his family to let him study abroad. If he returned home now, Nam would make everyone sad. Nam therefore had more motivation to learn the language.
Nam downloaded Japanese teaching materials in Vietnamese online to study. Every night, he spent 3-4 hours learning to read, write, and listen to programs in Japanese. Nam also joined the table tennis club, the student association of the school, and took advantage of opportunities to talk to Japanese students.
In addition, Nam studied English outside. Thanks to living in a dormitory with international students, Nam's English improved after 5-6 months, faster than his Japanese.
The IUHW program consists of the first two years taught primarily in English, while the remaining years are spent studying and practicing in Japanese. When entering the major, although he could communicate fluently, Nam could only understand about 30-40% of the lecture content. He had to read additional documents and lecture slides to grasp the lesson and keep up with the teacher's pace.
He said that if students want to do an internship in their fourth and fifth years, they must pass two theoretical and clinical skills exams in their third year. In the clinical skills exam, students are assessed on their ability to ask questions, examine, and perform medical procedures.
Nam practices surgical techniques during his fourth year of internship at the hospital. Photo: Character provided
Entering his sixth year, he had to take a number of exams, including the exam to obtain a practicing certificate. To prepare for this exam, he had been studying since his fourth year, by studying in groups, practicing questions, and studying through clinical internships at the hospital.
"The exam, organized by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, is of utmost importance to medical students. If you pass, you are considered a doctor and begin clinical practice," Nam explained.
Nam spent two days taking the exam with 6 parts. According to him, the exam was challenging because it included general knowledge about the industry, from the circulatory, respiratory, and neurological systems to public health, forensics, etc. The questions were divided into two types: basic theory and clinical situations. Through specific symptoms and indicators, candidates needed to diagnose, suggest treatment methods, and then fill in the answers in multiple choice format.
According to statistics, this year more than 10,000 people took the exam to obtain a practicing certificate. Nam scored higher than 91.7% of the candidates, which means he was in the top 10% of the candidates with the highest scores.
Professor Haruko Akatsu, Vice President of IUHW, said that Nam's passing the exam with a high score was like "winning a medal at the Olympics". According to her, language is the biggest barrier for foreign students who want to obtain this license in Japan. Participants need not only solid medical knowledge but also a high level of Japanese to understand and answer the questions correctly.
“He is a talent,” she said, adding that she has taught Nam medical communication, clinical skills, medical ethics, medical English and endocrinology.
In addition to academics, Ms. Akatsu was also impressed with Vietnamese students in extracurricular activities. Nam was the president of the Vietnamese Youth and Student Association in Japan, organized many activities at school and interpreted for Vietnamese delegations in Japan.
After going through the application and interview rounds, Nam was accepted as a resident physician at the Oncology Department, IUHW Narita Hospital. He plans to return to Vietnam in two years to take the exam for a practicing certificate and further study.
"If you decide to pursue medicine, you need passion and perseverance. Seize the opportunity to express yourself and don't give up," he concluded.
Dawn
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