Speaking Jewish

This morning at Morning Report we had our usual case presentations of consults and traumas that happened overnight. A resident was presenting a trauma where the patient came in unconscious and later his family followed him into the trauma bay, where some of them were arguing with the trauma team against intubating the patient. The resident described how the discussion went for 30 minutes, with more family members (up to 18 at one point) coming who could better discuss the situation with other family because they “could speak Jewish.” The room at Morning Report laughed. I might have too, but then remarked how it sounds just as silly (but much more common) to say “could speak Chinese.” Ah well.