Ottawa without French?

[ffp]

Ok, now it's my turn to ask you guys a question and get your advice!

I'm considering doing a fellowship in interventional cardiology or electrophysiology at the Ottawa Heart Institute. The problem is that I'm the stereotypical born and raised Albertan who doesn't know a word of French. My French education began in grade 4 and ended in grade 6. We learned how to say such practical things as, "camel", "it's raining", "Julie is in the bathroom" and "What is that? It's a piece of chalk".

 

I was wondering if I could get by in an Ottawa hospital without knowing French. I'm certainly willing to learn. Just given my hours, I won't be able to take a formal French course, but I've downloaded some stuff from the internet and I"m reasonably motivated and a fast learner.

 

The problem is that I have to start NOW to arrange my electives for next year. I definitely won't have a working knowledge of French by the time I go for electives. Are they going to discover that I don't know any French and then discredit me as a potential applicant to their program? If so, I should probably forget about Ottawa and arrange my electives elsewhere.

 

Let me know what you think!

[Satsuma]

Hey ffp

 

Ottawa Civic is (I believe) the only Ottawa Hospital that is not officially bilingual (so all the charts will be in English). In any case, it is the most anglo of all the hospitals here. While some of the cardiologists there speak French, they don`t all speak French and you certainly wouldn`t have to,to do a fellowship there. If you pick up a bit of French it could help you out with some of the francophone patients you may come accross. But don`t let language stand in the way of doing a fellowship at a great place!

 

Good luck!

Sats

[exvv]

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), including the Civic campus, is officially bilingual. But you can easily work there without French. All documentation (at least patient records) is in English.