Learning medical Chinese

[Guest guest]

Hi Ken

 

> ...

> I'm preparing a course now to help

> bring people up to speed on Chinese

> medical language ...

 

Do you have a specific method in mind or

a favorite set of books by which one can

learn medical chinese? In a proper way that

is, grasping the real meaning of the chinese

terms that we often do not, as you so often say.

 

Though at one time I would like to learn

the chinese language, I have a feeling that

it would take many, many years to grasp.

But maybe you can ease my 'black' view of

learning medical chinese.

 

Best wishes

 

Alwin

[Guest guest]

Alwin,

 

As to books, here are the texts I

use for the course I am teaching:

 

Required reading:

 

Who Can Ride the Dragon?

Zhang Yu Huan and Ken Rose

Paradigm Publications, Brookline, MA

1999

 

A Brief History of Qi

Zhang Yu Huan and Ken Rose

Paradigm Publications, Brookline, MA

2001

 

Medicine in China: A History of Ideas

Paul Unschuld

University of California Press

1985

 

Chinese Medical Chinese

Nigel Wiseman and Feng Ye

Paradigm Publications, Brookline, MA

2002

 

Chinese Medical Chinese: Characters

Nigel Wiseman and Zhang Yu Huan

Paradigm Publications, Taos, NM

2003

 

I've developed a method of teaching

language over the past dozen years

or so while teaching English in China

as well as teaching Chinese medical

language here in the States and elsewhere

around the world to students of traditional

Chinese medicine.

 

Students should be familiarized with

a set of general considerations about

the language and then introduced to the

process of acquiring knowledge of the

individual characters, their derivations,

correct method of writing, meanings,

pronounciation, as well as their implications

and applications in the clinic.

 

I think it's very important that language

learning and clinical training be intertwined.

 

It is a substantial undertaking, not a trivial one.

But it does not take years to get started.

If one is properly oriented to it, learning

Chinese characters can...and should become

a lifelong pursuit.

 

The course I'm now offering is 120 hours.

It is scheduled to be delivered as a series

of 10 12-hour weekend workshops, the first

twenty hours or so devoted to the basic

considerations and the balance addressed to

acquisition of vocabulary, as described above.

 

With a teacher who knows the terrain and

can navigate through such issues as how

to deconstruct a character properly in

order to use a dictionary, a student should

be able to come out of these ten weeks with

a fundamental grasp of the issues involved in

learning Chinese medical Chinese and a command

of the 100 most basic terms.

 

The skills gained through this course will

also serve the successful student in acquiring

further vocabulary leading ultimately to

literacy, i.e., the ability to read, understand

and apply Chinese medical texts. Fluent literacy

is not the stated objective of this introductory

course, but the first step is probably the

most important one.

 

And the course I'll be delivering in the near

future will be given in a busy clinic (20-30

patient visits per day) where students also

have the option of serving an apprenticeship

so that they can experience the benefits that

a clearer grasp of the fundamental terms and

concepts can help them attain.

 

No one should be backed off from learning

Chinese medical Chinese because they

deem it too difficult. If you made a list

of the truly difficult things you have to

do in life, this would not be among them.

 

But if you made a list of those activities

that produce the highest benefit in terms

of understanding Chinese medicine, acquisition

of familiarity with the nomenclature should

go in the first two or three places.

 

Ken