Teaching and learning medical Hungarian vs. medical English: similarities and differences

Many Hungarian and international students who plan to work in healthcare choose the Medical School of the University of Pécs (UPMS) after finishing their secondary education. The programmes offered by UPMS have become increasingly popular in the past few decades, resulting in the rapid growth of the international student population. There are many similarities and differences between the multicultural and the Hungarian student groups, but they all have high expectations when they begin their studies, and certain perceptions about learning Hungarian (HMP) and English (EMP) for Medical Purposes. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the findings of an online survey conducted at UPMS throughout the academic year of 2018/19, whose goal was to shed some light on what methods international and Hungarian medical students deem the best to study HMP and EMP. The results suggest that both student cohorts prefer to be active during classes, favour cooperative tasks and group work over working alone, and using their mobile devices as much as possible, although the international students were slightly more decisive in many aspects compared to their Hungarian peers. Overall, it may be said that medical students tend to have shared needs, views and preferences when it comes to leaning HMP and EMP, undeterred by their different nationalities, which assists medical language teachers in fine-tuning their classes to their students’ learning styles.