At the University of Barcelona and, consequently, at the Faculty of Medicine, Catalan is the language used for institutional, administrative and academic purposes.

Given the similarity of Catalan to other Romance languages such as Spanish, French and Italian, comprehension of Catalan, i.e. passive knowledge, should not present great difficulties to University students who are already familiar with other languages derived from Latin – especially those who already know Spanish.

In addition, as an academic institution committed to internationalization, the UB is open to the use of other languages in its teaching and research activities.

For further information on language use at the UB (e.g. the languages used in examinations, postgraduate courses, etc.) please consult the following webpage:

http://www.ub.edu/sl/en/socio/pmf_infcat.htm

For more general information on the Catalan language (outside the University environment) we recommend the links that can be accessed at the following site:

http://www.ub.edu/slc/enllaca/directori.php?branca=344
 

To learn some Catalan before coming to the UB, access the resources at the following site:

http://www.ub.edu/sl/en/socio/pmf_infcat.htm#6

We also recommend the Intercat portal for those interested in learning Catalan:

http://www.intercat.gencat.net/eng/index.html.
 
 

The UB’s Catalan Language Service (the Servei de Llengua Catalana, SLC) offers free intensive Catalan courses for beginners to help you follow your degree studies in the early stages:

http://www.ub.edu/sl/en/fl/formling.htm

There is also a conversation exchange program with Catalan-speaking students (http://www.ub.edu/slc/borsa/borsaenglish.htm), and tutorials that focus on the specialized vocabulary used in the area of health sciences (http://www.ub.edu/slc/borsa/borsaenglish.htm).

For individual study, the SLC has a fully equipped self-access centre (http://www.ub.edu/sl/ca/fl/servei3.htm), with a wide range of language learning materials.
 

Guide book of medical conversation (Catalan-English-Spanish)

This guide is a useful handbook for medical care, providing doctors, other health professional and students of medicine students with basic conversational skills for medical interviews. The guide may be purchased at the Comissió de Dinamització Lingüística in the Faculty of Medicine (http://www.publicacions.ub.es/ficha.asp?codi=04591) .

A University Phrase Book

This guide offers basic vocabulary and expressions in communicative that are likely to arise in the case of exchange students. This guide also contains voice files so that you can listen to the pronunciation of phrases and words:

http://intercat.cesca.es/guia/.

Encyclopedic dictionary of medicine

This dictionary, compiled by Enciclopèdia Catalana, contains a large number of medical terms in Catalan with definitions, and the equivalent terms in Spanish and English:

http://www.grec.net/home/cel/mdicc.htm.

UBTerm (http://www.ub.edu/slc/ubterm)

UBTerm is the University of Barcelona’s terminology database. It contains the terms in glossaries and dictionaries compiled by UB members. For students at the Faculty of Medicine we recommend the following, among others: Vocabulari d'anatomia patològica, Vocabulari de biologia cel·lular, Diccionari de bioquímica clínica, Diccionari de bioquímica de la nutrició, Vocabulari de podologia, Vocabulari de semiologia, Vocabulari de neurociència, Vocabulari de genètica, Vocabulari d'infermeria.