When you study medicine at RSU, you're studying in the international side. This means that all your studies will be done in English. But does this mean you don't have to study Latvian at all? Not exactly.
Latvian studies
During your first year, you will have some degree of Latvian language studies. It has changed since February 2025 (when I started my first year). When I studied, we had our own Latvian course. Now Latin and Latvian has been unified into one 'Medical terminology in Latvian and Latin' -course.
But even when I was doing my studies in Latvian, it was very superficial. The topics and grammatical rules are super simple and there are only 4 colloquiums in total as well as a presentation.
The amount of Latvian you learn is tiny in my opinion, and doesn't really help with anything else than supermarket visits...
Day-to-day life
Latvia is not always the easiest country when it comes to only knowing English. Most young people speak English very well, and you'll survive with only English in almost all cafés, stores, and restaurants. But as soon as you go to the Central Market, or another market, English knowledge is almost non-existent. So it is good to know some basic phrases in Latvian, such as "Hello", "I'd like...", "Thank you", "Have a nice day", "Goodbye".
- Hello = Labdien / Sveiki
- Goodbye = Visu labu
- Thank you = Paldies
- I'd like ... please = Es gribētu ..., lūdzu.
I think anyone will survive with just this.
Also, for some reason the ladies that work at the cloakroom do not speak any English so if there is any issue with missing clothing... Any Latvian skills (and Google Translate) will be of great help.
State exam
The state exam will be done in English, and you will be provided with a translator in case there are patients / other aspects where English is not available.
So, long story short: You don't really need to learn Latvian. You'll learn enough to reach maybe A1.1 level. Beyond that is all up to your own preference and desire for learning Latvian.
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