Chinese language learning

[Guest guest]

Why does the discussion of Chinese medical language create such heat?

 

It is worth noting that these discussions have altered over time. We are now

arguing how necessary it is for clinicians to learn Chinese medical Chinese,

not whether there really is a medical Chinese to know or whether it is

beyond the reach of all but a select few Yet, of all the things we discuss,

language still creates the most furor.

 

I believe this is because decisions concerning the valuation of Chinese

language are inherently about who is a CM authority. We don't say it, but

we know it. Raising our estimation of the value of Chinese medical Chinese

is a clear assertion that authority rests not with us, but with the Chinese.

 

When TCM had " arrived " as the field's educational focus in the early 1980's,

one claim was so often made that it became the cynical title for TCM --

" what they do in China. " With the authority of the Chinese owners of

Chinese medicine thus implied, TCM overwhelmed all of the other

traditions then active. The elites of the field were those who " knew what

they did in China " by virtue of education and observation on Chinese

ground. However, these claims to " what they do in China " were more

narrowly drawn than we then imagined and supported more by personal

experience than any one of the many Chinese views.

 

Through the years this narrow view of Chinese medicine has not survived.

People who once credited authority to what they do in China now complain

of Chinese decisions -- integration for example -- and people who were once

attracted to CM for the holistic qualities by which it was initially described

are looking to other systems that now feel more like what they were looking

for when TCM arrived.

 

Thus, when people promote the idea of knowing Chinese, there is a lot at

stake. A profession in which access to Chinese experience and opinion is

wide-spread is not the same as a profession in which Chinese experience and

opinion is transmitted by a relatively small number of individuals. A CM

profession with access to only twenty or thirty of the most clinically-

oriented Chinese language journals is one in which the authority of twenty

years clinical experience in the West dims in comparision to the forty to

sixty years experience of senior Chinese physicians. The entire corps of

Western experts would be lost in a sea of Chinese PhD's. Interpretations of

the classics by Western writers are hardly a speck in the centuries of

Chinese language commentary.

 

China is big, unimaginably big and diverse. A greater flow of information

and opinion from China is one in which today's orthodox western TCM will

need to complete as only one of many. Speaking for " the Chinese " as if they

were some monolith of culture would be an endangered occupation.

 

I do not mean to blame this state on anyone, or to pretend that I have all the

answers. But, I feel that Chinese language learning is bearing a lot of the

weight of what is more realistically the natural maturation of our field. I

think answers would easier to find with a broader view of the field, one in

which Chinese medicine is seen as so large a body of knowledge that none

expect to cram it all into clinician's heads. If that is accepted as an

educational reality, then it become more important to develop life-long

access to resources. For example, if professions such as Chinese medical

translation, Chinese medical education, as well as traditional cultural and

philosophical studies, were encouraged we could bring traditional academic

resources to bear.

 

By teaching people to access information, rather than to memorize it, there

would be more time for clinic, as well as language and culture, because

allied academic professions would make information available in many

different ways, not just classes squeezed between materia medica 101 and a

clinical rotation. Furthermore, much can be accomplished with out

touching curriculum, for example, we could lobby our own accrediting

agencies to create incentives for those who undertake longer-term on-line

continuing education in the Chinese language. That forces no one to do

anything and in a few years the experience of these pioneers would tell us a

lot about its value.

 

Bob

 

bob Paradigm Publications

www.paradigm-pubs.com 44 Linden Street

Robert L. Felt Brookline MA 02445

617-738-4664

 

 

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