Good times, Med times

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Every soap-show loving medicine student has probably heard of General hospital. The ABC show has been on since 1963 when the first episode aired in black and white colours. Featuring drama, romance, ethical dilemmas, and much more all within a fictional hospital setting, it's the perfect mindless background noise. If you’re an international student, and a fan of such types of series, you’ll be happy to hear that the Dutch know a little about soap operas as well! For this issue, we have picked out some classics to pass on to you. Besides providing entertainment, these shows can help you practice your Dutch as well!

 

The oldest series, and perhaps the most classic and well known, is Medisch Centrum West (MCW). Based on the American general hospital, it features an absolute mess of characters, divided between doctors and nurses. All these characters have their own dramatic storylines every episode, which leads to an hour of delicious chaos. With the first episode, you’re already in for a treat, the main problem being addressed is euthanasia. The attending physician refuses euthanasia to an older cancer patient on his personal moral grounds, so the team decides to act behind his back to grant the wish. Even though this provides an interesting look at a moral dilemma, maybe don’t watch the series expecting to find your moral compass. 

 

The series is noticeably old fashioned, both in medical practices (of which we don’t get to see a lot), and in the way the characters interact. Later episodes are sponsored by the Dutch Association Against Heart and Artery Disease, which is seen in the advice given concerning cholesterol. As far as acting is concerned, MCW is, to no surprise, not especially good. The language is simple, and the accents are very correct, which makes it the perfect practice material for understanding Dutch. The scenes are very simple and cut quite harshly, which makes it so that there is also no need to actively pay attention to what is happening. 

If you decide to check out MCW, you’ll find various episodes available for free on Youtube and Dailymotion (with ads). 

 

CMC, Centraal Medisch Centrum, is a modern series airing on RTL. It is shot in the Dr. Janscentrum in Emmeloord, and features a wide selection of stories. This series provides a broad overview of hospital semantics by following the main character Cleo, the new director of the CMC. As she struggles with finances, deceitful colleagues, and overall management, we are presented with patient cases and personal stories of hospital staff. The series is sponsored by a range of organisations such as the Alzheimer Netherlands organisation, the Hartstichting, and many more. Because of this, it features realistic medical cases and dilemmas. Often episodes try to give prevention advice or information on healthcare options to viewers. Consults, especially realistic anamnesis conversations are also included, which makes it a relevant and interesting series for medical students. Of course with that, we also get the necessary exaggerated drama. 

 

Spoken Dutch can be a bit fast, but it is mostly without difficult accents and medical terms are used as well. It may not be a good starting point to learn Dutch, but it’s definitely good practice for more advanced learners. If you’re looking for a relatively realistic series with decent acting and new cases each episode, CMC is for you!

The series is available on RTL XL online.

 

And our wildcard of the group; Dokter Tinus. Dokter Tinus is based on the British Doc Martin and follows a vascular surgeon who becomes a small-town GP after he develops a fear of blood. The series doesn’t feature a whole lot of detailed medical cases, and Dr. Tinus is not exactly an empathic role model to future doctors. But that’s all made up for by the adorable silly vibe of the series, and the emotional progress of the characters. Different accents are featured, and Dr. Tinus speaks a clear, easy to understand the type of Dutch. All in all, it's a perfectly fine low effort way to pick up some new language skills. 

Some episodes of dokter Tinus are available for free on Youtube.