A bachelor of health sciences in medical laboratory student at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Free State has participated and excelled in the national lexicon project held in Cape Town.
Phidiso Moloantoa took the opportunity to broaden his horizons and expand his critical thinking skills by taking part in translating English medical terms to Sesotho, his native language.
This is part of an initiative by the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) that aims to simplify medical jargon and make it sound familiar to Sesotho-speaking people.
Moloantoa’s general skills of creative, critical, and logical thinking stood out.
He said: “Although it sounds simple, it wasn’t an easy task to do, and it would take the whole day arguing with professionals and doctors, and through that we learned a lot. It was an opportunity to broaden our psychology and argument skills. We had three meetings with PanSALB and then went back to attending normal classes.”
The aim of the lexicon development project is to improve and open an enabling learning environment by using native African languages to grant access to knowledge within the disciplines.
It also aims to facilitate students’ understanding of discipline-specific concepts using indigenous African language terminologies.
“I would love to thank the faculty of health and environmental sciences together with the Health Department for instilling into our minds the academic concepts to achieve the goals we set for ourselves,” he said.
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