Recommended Books for the OET Student
Cambridge English for Nursing (Intermediate Plus) Student’s Book with Audio CDs
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
This book provides a range of exercises to develop both your nursing knowledge as well as your language and communication skills. There are listening activities reflecting everyday nursing scenarios and sections that focus on communication (such as how to give advice), which are important for OET speaking roleplays. The section on abbreviations and acronyms used in healthcare will be useful for OET writing, as well as the online glossary with a pronunciation guide. You can also review your knowledge of common nursing scenarios to prepare for the speaking exam – such as in respiratory care, nursing wound care, etc.
Cambridge English for Nursing Pre-intermediate Student’s Book with Audio CD
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
Units such as ‘Caring for patients after an operation’ and diabetes management will be vital in preparing for your OET speaking exam as it is a common scenario. This book can also be used review your language skills with listening activities and a focus in every chapter on communication – such as showing empathy during hospital interactions. This is recommended for the nursing student seeking to review their basic nursing skills and techniques, as well as basic medical sciences.
English for Medicine in Higher Education Studies
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
This book is designed for students who plan to take a course in the field of medicine entirely or partly in English. Complete with audio for lecture and seminar excerpts, these are perfect for the OET student studying for the listening component of the exam. I particularly recommend utilising their great tips for note-taking (useful for OET listening) and recognising digressions, and choosing the vital information from the irrelevant information of a text. Students can also use the exercises with figures and diagrams to develop your skills in interpretation of figures, in preparation for the OET reading.
English for Nursing, Academic Skills
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
This book is great for the Nursing student. There are sections on critical thinking in Nursing, a vital skill to incorporate and develop during medical studies, whether in Nursing or Medicine. For the students preparing for the OET in particular, specific chapters of the book focusing on reading and skimming skills may reveal new strategies you can use to tackle your OET reading. The section on ‘Developing Note-Taking Skills’ will assist in both your study and work environments, as well as in the OET, especially in the Listening section. I also particularly recommend this book to develop your understanding of research terminology.
English in Medicine: A Course in Communication Skills
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
English in Medicine is an introductory text for overseas health professionals wanting to review their basic communication skills, perhaps in preparation for the OET exam. It provides insight into a range of clinically relevant tasks, such as taking a detailed patient history, communicating with the patient during the physical examination as well as completing clinical notes. Suitable for health professionals just starting out in an English-speaking environment, there are sample patient-doctor dialogues that the student can listen to, accompanied with the appropriate transcript, which can be used to practice for the OET listening component. In addition, the section on search strategy can be relevant to your other medical studies.
Oxford English for Careers Nursing 1: Student’s Book
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
Short exercises and simple language are the benefits of this book for the student who is beginning their studies in English. The book advances from more general chapters regarding the hospital team and environment, to more specific topics include mental health nursing and managing a patient’s medications. Use the language spot to revise your grammar skills, including prepositions or the passive form. A basic, easy-to-use revision textbook if you’re looking for one to review and prepare for the OET exam.
Oxford English for Careers Nursing 2: Student’s Book
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
This book progresses on from Book 1, with a more detailed focus on areas of Medicine, ranging from Obstetrics to Renal and Psychiatry, suitable for the more advanced student. A more comprehensive revision of essential writing, speaking, listening and reading communication skills is provided to help pass your OET as well as to work as a nurse. Signs and symptoms relevant to each discipline are reviewed and discussed, useful for writing and speaking in the OET. Again, the language spot will assist in revision of grammar and vocabulary.
Professional English in Use Medicine
This book can be bought at slsbooks.com.au
Designed to assist those who wish to improve in their interpretation and fluency of medical journals and textbooks, Professional English in Use Medicine will take you through the various body systems and the relevant terminology that is commonly used in each specialty. Students may also find the sections on history-taking, physical examinations as well as communicating treatment and management to be useful to their studies. For the OET student, this is a concise textbook to https://skincarepillsshop.com review your basic medical terminology as you begin to undertake your studies and work in an English-speaking setting.
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは。
My Japanese classes/lessons included practices to develop skills of speaking/talking, reading, listening, writing, interacting, and constructing/performing students’ own dialogues by pairs/groups.
My Pre-Intermediate 1 (that finished that level last week) worked with Unit 4, Genki Book 1 apart from Kanji learning with use of the Kanji learning pages located at the back of the above textbook. Also, for that class, I taught Japanese used for travel in Japan. Early in the course, I taught with some text for ordering foods at restaurants, currency exchange, buying train tickets, booking a hotel room (the text is originated from one I had edited for other organization of its online video course). Late month, I used with part of the material of other source and the situations of the language used were such as asking places or services at a hotel or ryokan, “Where is the bathroom?”, “Do you have room service?”, “I want to leave this in the safe?”, “Do you have more quiet room?” “I can’t turn on the heater.” etc. In that class, there was a student who had purchased the book which is for the preparation for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) 4-5. And I showed his book to the class. It appeared there are other students who are interested in the JLPT, so I said to the class that in future, including the next stage for them (if they will be enrolled), we might include learning time for Travel Japanese and the preparatory sessions of the JLPT with the agreement of all the participants of the class. That will be probably about 20~30% of the time to be spent of the 10 weeks’ course. All the students in that class seemed happy with that new element in the future course.
Apart from the above course, I weekly taught two students for their tutorials. One was for the JLPT N1 and the other was the JLPT N3. Both were lovely and very interesting students. One of them has to have a break due to his other commitments and the other will continue. To the former, I talked about my favorite and the Japanese, profoundly great business leader in the Modern Times, late Konosuke Matsushita, apart from other things on Japan. The student enjoyed and appreciated such information. Also, to my class/tutorials, I informed about the article of Escape, Sunday Telegraph, 20 July, ’14, pp. 28-29, “Bullet trains take the cake”. A big and fascinating article/report! It includes information that Japan celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Shinkansen that began running in 1964 prior to the Tokyo Olympics.
The above report says the first Shinkansen, the Tokaido Shinkan took 4 hours to run between Tokyo and Osaka when it started running. Currently its Nozomi (the super-high-speed) makes the journey in 2.5 hours. It is the world’s busiest high-speed rail line, carrying more than 150 million passengers a year! There are 3 types of trains on the line, i.e. Nozomi (fastest), Hikari and Kodama.
The above article says Japan developed SCMAGLEV. It states “It (SCMAGLEV) stands for Super Conductive Magnetic Levitation. The MLXI Maglev prototype on display holds the world speed record for rail vehicles at an astounding 581km/h.” “By 2025, Japan aims to put commercial maglev trains into operation, which could shorten the Tokyo-Osaka trip to one hour.” (- Sounds amazing!)
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
5.8.14
Chuseok 추석 (Hangawi한가위) – One of the biggest holidays in Korea
Monday 8 September 2014 is Chuseok, which is also called Hangawi (한가위). The meaning of Hangawi is a combination of “Han” which means big and “Gawi” which is the idea of August or Autumn. As one of the biggest public holidays in Korea, Chuseok normally lasts for 3 days. Fortunately, this year the holiday starts from Monday and Koreans are excited to have a long, 5 days holiday including the weekend. During the holiday, Koreans who live in large cities typically come back to their family original hometown to meet other members of the family. They spend a quality time together and play traditional games while sharing food and drinks. People also perform ancestral worship rituals to thank to their ancestors for the abundant harvest called “Charye”. It is the ancestral memorial rite where people prepare food and greet their ancestors in order to return their favours and honour them. These memorial rites have been practiced for thousands of years across Korea since Koreans believe that people only die physically but their sprits live on forever. On Chuseok Day, the typical Korean family starts the morning with “Charye”, followed by a big breakfast with the whole family. Afterwards, the family visits their ancestor’s graves to greet and clear any weed around the area. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new trend where growing numbers of families decide to travel both in Korea and overseas. Although this could be seen as a break with tradition, it is widely regarded as a special moment of the year when families get to take some time out and have an opportunity to spend some time together, united as a family: this is what “Chuseok” is all about.
Collectivistic culture in Korea
Korea is a place where low individualism prevails but collectivism predominates. Korean people believe in the will of the group rather than that of the individual, and the society emphasises on harmony and group decision-making. Therefore, while you are studying Korean, you will be able to find unique cultural fact and expressions that have traditionally been handed down.
The adjective of ‘our’ is often used when referring to Korea; the country, own home or family members instead of using ‘my’ such as our country and our home. It does not necessarily mean there was a joint ownership involved. ‘Our’ emphasizes community over individuality, which expressing their affiliations that they are belong to. By using this term, Koreans consciously or unconsciously strengthen a sense of harmony. However, when it is necessary to specify one’s possession, ‘my’ is used. ‘Our’ could sound odd in this case.
The other interesting Korean culture fact is calling people as a family member. For instance, a ripe of old age of 80 is normally called as a grandfather or grandmother from other people regardless of family relationship. Brothers and sisters are also frequently used to call rather than their names. Since Koreans historically observe a custom of Confucian ideology that considers the society as a big family in the same vein as collectivism. This unique culture gives Korean people a sense of intimacy to each other.
In addition, when you are willing to call someone only by names, you should make sure if the other person is the same age otherwise the other person might feel uncomfortable to be called since the appropriate title is particularly commonly used rather than names. If someone looks obviously older than you, it may be a good idea to call him or her as a familial title. If it happened in a work place, you should call someone by his or her title (check out the last blog: ‘A word on culture: you’). The term ‘friend’ in Korean is only used to refer to someone the same age as you. Names without any title can be used after you are quite close to someone.
Phone Conversation in Korean
Dialogue 1: How to call your friend!
A: 여보세요? Jenny집인가요?
(yeoboseyo? Jenny jip ingayo? /
Hello? Is this Jenny’s residence?)
B: 네, 누구세요? (ne, nuguseyo?/ Yes. Who is calling?)
A: 저는 Jenny 친구 Mike예요.
(jeoneun jenny chingu Mike yeyo. / I’m Mike, Jenny’s friend.
Jenny 있어요? (Jenny isseoyo? / Is there Jenny?)
B: 네, 잠시만요. (ne, jamsimanyo/ Yes. Hold on, please.)
A: 감사합니다. (gamsahamnida/ Thank you.)
…………………
Jenny: 여보세요? (yeoboseyo? / Hello?)
Mike: 응, 나야. Mike야. (eung/naya/ Yep, It’s me, Mike.)
Dialogue 2: How to call in Korean formally!
A: 여보세요? Jenny씨 댁인가요?
(yeoboseyo? Jenny ssi daekingayo? / Hello? Is this Jenny’s residence?)
B: 네, 누구세요? (ne, nuguseyo?/ Yes. Who is calling?)
A: 저는 Jenny씨 회사 동료 Mike예요.
(jeoneun jenny ssi hoesa dongryo Mike yeyo. /
I’m Mike, Jenny’s colleague.)
Jenny씨 계신가요? (Jenny gyesingayo? / Is there Jenny?)
B: 네, 잠시만요. (ne, jamsimanyo/ Yes. Hold on, please.)
A: 감사합니다. (gamsahamnida/ Thank you.)
…………………
Jenny: 여보세요? (yeoboseyo? / Hello?)
Mike: 제니씨, 저예요. (Jenny ssi jeoyeyo/ Yep, It’s me, Mike.)
When you call to your friend casually or call to someone formally, you need to use somewhat different level of politeness in Korean.
Firstly, “Hello?” on the phone is “여보세요?”
When you pick up the phone, just say “여보세요?”
Koreans normally ask the question “Who is calling?” to the caller.
“누구세요?”(Who is calling?”) or “실례지만, 누구세요?” (Excuse me but who is calling?) can be used in Korean.
When you want to confirm whether or not you called to the right place or number, you can ask the question “~인가요?”
Like the examples, casually “제니 집인가요?” or formally “제니씨 댁인가요?” is used depending on the situation.
Two expressions ‘제니 집’ and ‘제니씨 댁’ mean the same “Jenny’s residence (house)” But depending on the situation, we need to choose the proper the level of politeness. ‘댁’ is an honorific word of ‘집’
제니 집 (Jenny’s residence) 교수님 댁 (professor’s residence)
Just combine with a noun with ~인가요?
“제니 집 인가요?” “교수님 댁 인가요?”
(Is this Jenny’s residence?) (Is this the Professor’s residence?)
When you ask the telephonee to put you through to your friend, you can say “~있어요?” Like the example on the first dialogue, you can ask the question “제니 있어요?” It means “Is Jenny there?” or “Is Jenny in?” The expression is informal. When you ask the question formally, you can say “제니씨 계신가요?”
계시다 is an honorific expression of 있다.
친구가 있어요(There is a friend). 어머니가 계세요(There is my mother).
Compare two sentences.
|
Questions |
Informally |
Formally |
| Is Jenny’s residence? | 제니 집인가요? | 제니씨 댁인가요? |
| Is there Jenny? | 제니 있어요? | 제니씨 계신가요? |
| It’s me. | 나야. | 저예요. |
Just try to call your friends in Korean. Start from the easiest “여보세요?” J
Sarah Yong (Korean Teacher)
Korean Convention: Using Familial Titles
In Korea, you must never call someone who is older than you by his or her name. Rather, use familial titles!
Calling the elder’s name directly should be rude in Korea. Rather, you must call him or her by an appropriate familial title. It would be much better. Of course, it is not for the working place but for the casual social life.
Interestingly, family titles can be used to call someone who is not your family member in Korea. Family titles are very often used to non-family members to express friendly feeling or intimacy. The situation can be seen easily in other Asian countries such as China or India.
However, there is something that we need to be careful about. Depending on your gender and the gender of opposite person, you should use different familial titles.
As seen in the above pictures, older sister can be called with ‘누나’ or ‘언니’ and older brother can be titled with ‘형’ or ‘오빠’.
When you call old women between 40~50-year-olds, 아주머니(ajumeoni) can be used. 아저씨(ajeossi) are used to old men around 40~50-year-olds. You may call 70~80-years-old men and women as 할아버지 (harabeoji) and 할머니(halmeoni) respectively.
When you call a young looking woman, you need to carefully choose one of two titles, 언니 (누나) or 아주머니. Korean woman doesn’t like to be called as 아줌마 or 아주머니. Especially, the title 아줌마 is not preferred too much. Many western people may be not sure of Asian women’s age with their looking. You can avoid using the direct titles until you can be sure of the person’s age or social status. 🙂
Sarah Yong (Korean Teacher)
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは。
My Japanese classes/lessons included practices to develop skills of speaking/talking, reading, listening, writing, interacting, and constructing/performing students’ own dialogues by pairs/groups. My Pre-Intermediate 1 has recently began Unit 4, Genki Book 1 apart from Kanji learning with use of the Kanji learning pages located at the back of the above textbook. We had a Japanese visitor to the class a few weeks ago. The Japanese young gentleman was staying at the home of one of the students of that class. We had great time with him while speaking in English and some Japanese. Also, in the above class, we practiced reading the names of many different Australian wine, “gooshuu-wain”, of which the names are written in Katakana. In addition, that exercise included how to express the prices of each bottle, name of colours and the Australian regional names that are famous for winery and sources of production of those kinds of wine. I used a Japanese advertisement for the above activity, which is from “Jenta”.
As for singing a Japanese song, the above class sang, “My Fingers” in Japanese over a few weeks. It is a cute and funny song. The words of the song include onomatopea written in Katakana, such as “wahahahaha” for a father’s laughing voice; “ohohohoho” of the mother’s laughing voice; “abubububu” for a baby’s voice.
Other student who I weekly tutor the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, N1 read and comprehend an article of Jenta, Sydney, “Aruki-sumaho: kiken desu.” (Use of smartphone while walking on a street is dangerous”). It is based on a scholar’s research. The article included many useful words and grammar for the above JLPT N1. Also, I used a Japanese article of a Japanese magazine “AERA” (31.3.2014, p.36-38). The title of the article is “Shigotoba –ga Toyota –ni Natta.” (My workplace became like one of Toyota.) Toyota is famous with its through way of use of office and equipment, i.e. resources. Any space, time to reach a certain equipment or place in the office/room, place to keep daily used equipment in a right and convenient place, training its new staff to know all of such so that staff’s energy, time, efficiency of the workplace etc will be the maximum. – A few years ago I read a book which talked about similar things, in Japanese. The book was written by a former Toyota executive. The book talked about many more things apart from the above technique of use of a workplace of Toyota. What was said in the book was just amazing.
This above magazine article of AERA was written by an executive trainer of QJT Solutions, who worked in Toyota for 40 years and he is “preaching” Toyota methods in many cities around Japan as an executive trainer. The article is fascinating, inspiring, able to apply the contexts to people’s any rooms, and so smart!
Also, I talked about the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Australia this month. The article, “Japan’s most powerful due to visit”, The Australian (2.7.2014, p. 22) reports that he will bring with him a business delegation whose companies market capitalization is almost equal to the gross domestic product of Denmark. The P.M. Abe will address in the Australian Parliament, Canberra for the first time in the history of the two nations, as the Japanese Prime Minister.
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
5.7.14
FAQs in OET Writing – for Medicine
In my time as an OET teacher at Sydney Language Solutions, I have seen many Medicine students take the OET examination. Here are some questions that Medicine students frequently ask me and I will provide the subsequent answers.
What kind of a letter will I be writing?
You will be writing a referral letter based on the patient’s notes provided.
Who will I be writing to?
Most of the time, you will be writing to a specialist for further management of the patient’s presenting problems. However, perhaps it is also wise to be prepared to write a letter to a nurse or an allied health professional. It is very important to keep in mind WHO you are writing to and what their ROLE in the patient care is.
Do I have to include all the information?
No, you do not have to include all the patient’s information. In fact, you shouldn’t because you may exceed the word limit of 200 words. Choose the most relevant and appropriate findings. If possible, write only positive findings. Try to SUMMARISE and write as CONCISELY as you can.
Are the address, date, subject line and salutation (e.g. Dear Doctor) included in the word count?
No, these sections of the letter do NOT contribute to your word count. The word count begins at the start of Diazepam shops your introductory paragraph. However, it is still important to include these elements (address, date, subject line, salutation) because they make your letter LOOK like a letter.
All the best!
A word on Culture: You
In the Korean language, the subject is quite often omitted. In one-to-one conversations, both speakers know who they talk to, and so Koreans believe that it is unnecessary to refer who is the subject. Therefore, the word ‘you’ is not commonly used in conversations, particularly when meeting people for the first time. If you look up ‘you’ in a English-Korean dictionary, you can find the direct translated word ‘당신’. However, this word is generally used for someone who is in a relationship with or someone who wants to express anger to the other party. Therefore, it is critical not to use this word easily otherwise it could be considered highly discourteous.
The first time you meet someone, after asking him or her for their name, you may call them by his or her full name or only their first name followed by 씨 (ssi) to indicate respect. For example, if you want to call someone, whose name is김민수, which consists of the last name 김(Kim) and the first name 민수(Minsu), you can call 김민수 씨 or 민수 씨. If the person that you meet is a close friend or a child, you usually use the word ‘너’ : it is an informal form of ‘you’. As this word is regarded as very informal, people do not easily use this word – even to someone who is far younger than them – as it is important for Koreans to display respect towards people, especially if they do not know very well the person who they are talking to.
Another way of calling people is by using work position titles instead of calling someone by using the personal pronoun ‘you’. For example if you are with someone at your work place, you can call him by his or her title such as director or manager. You usually attach님 at the end of the title to indicate respect. If you are not sure what his or her title is when you meet someone for the first time, you can introduce yourself with your position or exchange your business cards at the first meeting.
Japanese Diary of Mrs. Toshiko Jackson – 5
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