Language Study, Again

[Guest guest]

All,

 

> With

> the doctorate, the hours will increase even more, yet there is still

> resistance to the idea of language study. That suggests the resistance to

> language study is based on some other factor than time available.

 

Yes, in my opinion, this is exactly the key to the issue. As I think can

already be seen, greater access to the information that exists in the Chinese

language changes who is an expert, what comprises expertise, and from

these factors, the economic and political environment.

 

There are ready examples.

 

Go back in you mind to 1970 - 1975, the best selling acupuncture text was

`Acupuncture Ancient and Future Worlds' by Michio Kushi. It was in a

popular language, by a popular author who connected emotively with his

audience, and it sold more copies than any CM text does today. Kushi was

an expert, people listened to him, arguing with his view made you

unpopular, and the best access to training was through the macrobiotic

movement he controlled . . . but you can't find a copy of that book today

because the information that made him seem to be an expert (channel and

point locations) is now miniscule in comparison to the available literature.

 

The same thing happened to the Chinese teachers like So, Miriam Lee, etc,

and the Chinese texts like `Outline,' with the arrival of early-80's home-

grown experts who understood western styles, and (while they likely had

much less clinical expertise than the Chinese teachers) had access to new

information that permitted the development of classes, courses, schools and

tests. It was clearly not clinical expertise that counted, it was access to

information -- something that many Chinese teachers still do not fully grasp.

 

When, (not if ), a critical mass of persons who can access and deliver

Chinese medical information is available, the entire core of the field will

change as expertise acquires a new definition. It is not an `if' question for

me because I live in a world where any economically useful information is

and will always be pursued and it is impossible to imagine that acess to the

Asain language knowledge base (I deliberately include Japanese and

Korean) is not economically viable While I doubt my ability to predict the

future, I don't doubt that broad access to Chinese language information will

change the distribution of benefit in the West.

 

The reason that the Chinese langauge issue is so charged is that it has the

power to change the nature of what we believe to be knowledge, as well as

our idea of who is an expert. It has the power to alter the future and people

feel this intuitively.

 

One of the things that has made this discussion difficult to join is that I have

found it difficult to explain how it is that I see all these recent topics -

beginning in language and arriving in titles - as expressions of different

people's idea of what the future of the field will or should be. Our responses

are rooted in how we see the field's future because we have no other way to

judge issues like education, the role of Chinese thought and information, or

even how we perceive the value of one professional title or another.

 

Bob

 

 

bob Paradigm Publications

www.paradigm-pubs.com 44 Linden Street

Robert L. Felt Brookline MA 02445

617-738-4664