Abstract
In Japan, it is reported that in medical settings, young medical experts can not understand dialects which senior patients speak.In Taiwan, while Mandarin (Standard Chinese) is widely spoken, Taiwanese, Hakka Language and other dialects and local languages are also spoken. Especially, senior citizens speak Taiwanese in many cases. We think that the relationship between Mandarin and Taiwanese is similar to the relationship between standard language and dialects in Japan.
According to our questionnaire surveys to Japanese and Taiwanese nurses, when Taiwanese nurses can not understand what patients say, they tend to “ask their colleagues on site” more often than Japanese nurses do because Taiwanese and Hakka Language are different from Mandarin in terms of language system. And as for “the fields of words which nurses should know in advance”, Japanese and Taiwanese nurses chose almost the same words and phrases. Furthermore, both in Japan and Taiwan many nureses made favorable answers to “use of dialects in medical settings”.
Many languages are spoken in Taiwan. To investigate language situations in Taiwan is an important theme full of suggestions for Japan, because Japan is also becoming a multi-lingual state.
