language acquisition

[Guest guest]

>So, what I suggest rather than using CHA to argue

>about language, is to use it to find out how many people would like to study

>Chinese and how much time and money they think they can dedicate to the

>effort. I'm sure there are school people listening and if we put some

>facts to

>the issue, maybe someone will have a workable plan.

 

Since you asked... I'm very interested in learning to read medical Chinese,

enough to have spent several hundred dollars (with another several hundred

planned) on dictionaries, grammars, software, and specific

language-learning materials from the houses of both Flaws and Felt. I've

been laboriously working my way through a rather good book on dui yao as my

main project. The orthography seems to me to be the major hurdle, though

I've tried to be as systematic in studying it as possible.

 

My undergraduate degree was in language studies, and I managed to acquire

great fluency in German and a basic reading comprehension of Russian. Prior

to that I'd had three years of high school Latin and two of French. Not to

do too much bragging, but translation was a focal point in my undergrad

studies and I managed to win some campus awards for my work. I would very

much like to get a good enough grasp on medical Chinese to at least satisfy

my own reading interests, and I reckon I have sufficient skills and

aptitudes to that end. I'll get there, eventually, but I'll confess that

I'd probably make sooner progress with the help of some outside structure.

 

I can spend perhaps an hour day (perhaps more some days, perhaps less

others) on this goal. It seems enough to make slow progress. Between

treating and teaching I'm not left with large spans of time in which to

study intensively. I suppose the CEU format could work for this subject,

and I've already found the study of Chinese to be more rewarding than most

of the CEUs I've completed. I might consider spending about what I would

otherwise spend on CEUs, since I'm already spending a fair bit on

materials. While I may occasionally daydream of going back to school to

learn Chinese, it is in reality not too likely. I wonder if forming a

collective around the study of medical Chinese wouldn't be as effective as

other measures.

 

Greg Livingston, who is also a CHA r, has been quite diligent in

his studies for the past five years and might have other light to shed on

this subject. I know he has given me sound advice.

 

It would be good to hear from others about their experiences with Chinese

language learning and future goals.

 

Jeffrey Chapman

--

Jeffrey Chapman, L Ac, MTCM, Dipl Ac

Louisville Clinic of Traditional

732 Front Street, Suite 207 http://louisvilleclinic.com/

Louisville, Colorado 80027 303.604.0919