Introduction Advanced medical imaging is often lacking in rural countries, including Tanzania. Few studies have evaluated POCUS teaching to healthcare providers in Tanzania. Our objective was to determine if clinical officers could be taught POCUS by first-year medical students. A second objective was to determine if students learned better in English or Kiswahili. Methods Clinical officers were recruited from the Tandabui Institute of Health Sciences and Technology in Mwanza, Tanzania. Subjects took a pre-course, post-course, and practical exam. Between testing, students were taught an ultrasound course by first-year medical students. The students were randomly assigned into the Kiswahili or English group with identical examinations. Results 78 subjects were included in the final data collection. 42 were in the Kiswahili course and 36 in the English course. The median pre-course exam score was 26.9 (Min: 7.7, Max: 53.9) for the English group and 30.8 (Min: 0, Max: 61.5) for the Kiswahili group (All scores are in 0-100 scale). The median Post- course score rose to 93.3 (Min: 20.0, Max: 100.0) in English (P<0.001) and 80.0 (Min: 33.3, Max: 100.0) in Kiswahili (P<0.001). No significant score difference was found between the two groups (P= 0.19). Conclusions Our study found that POCUS can be taught to clinical officers in Tanzania using first-year medical students. There was no difference in the ability of students to learn ultrasound in English or Kiswahili. Future large scale studies are needed to validate these findings and evaluate long-term retention.