Guest guest Posted December 1, 2002 Report Share Posted December 1, 2002  dear List http://www.acca21.org.cn/medicine/index.html Where: 创新è¯ç‰©ä¸Žä¸è¯çŽ°ä»£åŒ– babelfish: "Innovation medicine and Chinese native medicine modernization" ä¸è¯ - was translated by babel fish as Chinese native medicine è¯ - medicine? But is this phrase not referring to medicine as medicines as in medicaments - drugs -yao? as opposed to: 医 - medicine, ä¸åŒ» - Chinese medicine Also, what type of character are they, modern or? Does any one know how I could enable the computer to write pin yin with its four (or five?) tones, and how one could enable the computer to write Chinese characters, at the moment I am cutting and pasting... Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 1, 2002 Report Share Posted December 1, 2002 Marco, > > 创新è¯ç‰©ä¸Žä¸è¯çŽ°ä»£åŒ– > > babelfish: " Innovation medicine and Chinese native medicine modernization " > > > ä¸è¯ - was translated by babel fish as Chinese native medicine > > è¯ - medicine? > > But is this phrase not referring to medicine as medicines as in medicaments - drugs -yao? > > as opposed to: 医 - medicine, ä¸åŒ» - Chinese medicine Both characters are translated into English as " medicine. " In fact, the English " medicine " means both, as if we said, " The practice of medicine includes prescribing of medicine. " Paul Unschuld included an interesting discussion of the character 医 in History of Ideas. I don't have a copy to hand, but it's in there somewhere. Unschuld points out that the character contains information, in that ancient Chinese pictographic mode, about the spear toting magicians who dance frantically to scare away demons and spirits in order to effect their medicine. The presence of certain etymological elements testifies to the character of medicine in that ancient period of Chinese history when the language came into existence. It's worth pointing out I think since we're talking about it, that this ancient magical character has been retained in the subject over the bulk of its history. Through the Tang there was always a Ministry of Incantations in the bureaucratic setup of the administration of medicine and public health in the official Chinese system. I believe you can find a strong influence still remains from these most ancient sources. > > Also, what type of character are they, modern or? They are modern, i.e., simplified characters. > > Does any one know how I could enable the computer to write pin yin with its four (or five?) tones, and how one could enable the computer to write Chinese characters, at the moment I am cutting and pasting... There's a utility in the Chinese version of Windows XP that enables the keyboard to produce toned pinyin. It may be an add on. I know Yuhuan was using it over the summer when we were working on prototypes of language learning materials. I don't know how available or accessible it might be for you. Writing Chinese characters is a standard feature, of course, of Chinese versions of windows and software that runs under windows. I know there are several software packages out there that provide character creation that run under English (and other non-Chinese languages) versions of windows. Hope that helps. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 2, 2002 Report Share Posted December 2, 2002  Dear Ken, Thanks, Ken: Both characters are translated into Englishas "medicine." In fact, the English "medicine"means both, as if we said, "The practice ofmedicine includes prescribing of medicine." Marco: è¯ and 医 can thus be both translated as medicine. Just an uneducated guess but that would then mean that both could be rendered into the plural form of medicine into the English language, namely: Medicines or? Medicines to me (do not currently have access to a proper English - English dictionary) implies substance to be taken i.e. medication - drugs (natural or synthetics). Hence the query is as follow: Presumably there is a functional, possibly overlapping, but nonethe less a functional difference between the two. Say è¯ for drug - yao and not 医 yi for drug? Thus, by learning the meaning of the two characters in relation to one and the other, as well as context (textual and literature investigation). One more then likely would learn a lot what countless students of the 'Art of the benevolence has understood or rather manifested/ing about the practice of medicine (more or less 20 generations, to state a relatively conservative estimate). In a way it is daunting thought but I take inspiration in You and others Tayfx, Sabine, Rey and Wiseman plus others of course... my only qualm is that my innate capabilities are far from those on this list. Also, Thanks for the information with regard to utilising the computer... To Ken and List in general.... As for recent letter by Bob Felt I totally agree and ask the list how can a internet course on the Chinese language+ be organised? (that way I would feel less guilty for asking language+ questions on this list). One way would be to create a new Chinese medical language+ list where participance decide on which materials to use and then find materials written in the Chinese language about ä¸åŒ» resulting in a fairly inter-connected translation. The problem is that it really would need supervisors-guiders-teachers Whom know the language+ and then it would be to much work to not have a compensationary system intact. However I would be willing to pay a fare price. So, maybe to get the ball rolling? Rey you mention interest in giving a internet course on medical Chinese. Is the interest still there? (as in time and possibilities etc.) How much would worthwhile be? (any teacher to be could send suggestions to me directly). Any potential students? (send ideas to me directly) HOWEVER since I am literature thick when it comes to computers and i.t. I must admit that SECRETETLY would prefer, say Chinese Herbal Medicine to host a internet course on medical Chinese. If this letter offends any one due to my constant un-eloquent form of writing I apologise... and the above is just an idea... Marco (whom just received your book who can ride the dragon?) yippee yippee hay... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 4, 2002 Report Share Posted December 4, 2002  Does any one know how I could enable the computer to write pin yin with its four (or five?) tones, and how one could enable the computer to write Chinese characters, at the moment I am cutting and pasting... Marco Hello Marco, There is a program called Wenlin, which is useful for learning and translating, though probably not 150 dollars useful, which is what I think I paid for it, and the website touts it as the second coming of Pimsleur, which it ain't. You can cut and paste into it, write small screeds in pinyin with tones and move them into other word processors. It is available at: http://www.wenlin.com/ It has a fairly robust dictionary, but not a lot of word processing bells and whistles, or nice fonts for printing. It has an instant look-up function which is useful, but a pain when your just trying to navigate around the text. The other program that I use is called NJ Star, which is more of a word processor. There was a free demo version available. The nice thing about it is it has a great radical look up system, and the pinyin input system is a little more fluid than Wenlin. It really seems like somebody should have put together a halfway decent WP in Chinese with a robust dictionary, I've been working on layout in Chinese with these two programs, and I have to say it's a nightmare . Demo available at http://www.njstar.com/. This program touts its dictionary as fairly good, but it is cranky, at least in my version. If I sound negative about these, I just spent the last four days inserting dropout characters into 48 pages of bilingual text, and then trying to make it look nice. They work, but they leave a lot of room for somebody to do something better. That I have all this is running on windows 98 may be part of the problem... aparently windows 2000 uses a unicode based system that has much better interaction with Chinese text systems, but I have yet to see it in action, it is about time they did something right. I think there is a free windows utility that lets you input characters, but when I've seen it in use it looks a little dodgy, I'll stick with my lumpy but working programs. Is anybody familiar with Twinbridge in a way that they would care to offer an opinion, I haven't found anybody with a copy I could play with. Thanks, Par Scott, Lic Ac, MAOM44 Pearl St Cambridge, MA 02139617-713-0915 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2002 Report Share Posted December 5, 2002 , " Par Scott " <parufus@e...> wrote: > Does any one know how I could enable the computer to write pin yin with its four (or five?) tones, and how one could enable the computer to write Chinese characters, at the moment I am cutting and pasting... 1) you can go to mandarintools.com - they have a macro there for the tones... (PC) 2) if you are using pC then it should be built into windows (Me and beyond) type in characters. OR you can buy twinbridge or NJ star or something.,.. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2002 Report Share Posted December 5, 2002 Par, We have Twinbridge at Blue Poppy. We've purchased at least two different versions over the years. It's an ok program as long as you are working in Word and not Wordperfect. However, Word is hardly adequate for professional publication. Also, the Twinbridge people are hopeless and helpless with customer service. Pidgin English (at best) doesn't cut in my book. So if you buy it, you're on your own unless your spoken Chinese (re computers and software) is pretty good. At least that's our experience. Bob , " Par Scott " <parufus@e...> wrote: > Does any one know how I could enable the computer to write pin yin with its four (or five?) tones, and how one could enable the computer to write Chinese characters, at the moment I am cutting and pasting... > > Marco > > Hello Marco, > There is a program called Wenlin, which is useful for learning and translating, though probably not 150 dollars useful, which is what I think I paid for it, and the website touts it as the second coming of Pimsleur, which it ain't. You can cut and paste into it, write small screeds in pinyin with tones and move them into other word processors. It is available at: http://www.wenlin.com/ It has a fairly robust dictionary, but not a lot of word processing bells and whistles, or nice fonts for printing. It has an instant look-up function which is useful, but a pain when your just trying to navigate around the text. > > The other program that I use is called NJ Star, which is more of a word processor. There was a free demo version available. The nice thing about it is it has a great radical look up system, and the pinyin input system is a little more fluid than Wenlin. It really seems like somebody should have put together a halfway decent WP in Chinese with a robust dictionary, I've been working on layout in Chinese with these two programs, and I have to say it's a nightmare . Demo available at http://www.njstar.com/. This program touts its dictionary as fairly good, but it is cranky, at least in my version. > > If I sound negative about these, I just spent the last four days inserting dropout characters into 48 pages of bilingual text, and then trying to make it look nice. They work, but they leave a lot of room for somebody to do something better. That I have all this is running on windows 98 may be part of the problem... aparently windows 2000 uses a unicode based system that has much better interaction with Chinese text systems, but I have yet to see it in action, it is about time they did something right. > > I think there is a free windows utility that lets you input characters, but when I've seen it in use it looks a little dodgy, I'll stick with my lumpy but working programs. > > Is anybody familiar with Twinbridge in a way that they would care to offer an opinion, I haven't found anybody with a copy I could play with. > > Thanks, > > Par Scott, Lic Ac, MAOM > 44 Pearl St > Cambridge, MA 02139 > 617-713-0915 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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