testament to wenlin

[Guest guest]

Listees,

 

By now, I am sure you all think I have a vested intertest in wenlin.

Actually, I have no idea who even makes it. I am just very enthusiastic

about the possibilities. In fact, I think wenlin could make the

difference whether the average student can actually get anything out of

the study of chinese in a brief period of time like the length of a

doctoral program (about 2 years). Every day in the intern clinic, I have

been turning my interns on to the software and 2 things have become

apparent.

 

1. students are also quite enthused about the possibilities. Everyone

wants to know where they can get the program and how much it costs.

 

2. I was very surprised to discover how little most of my interns know

about the chinese language. It is not their fault; they have plenty on

their plates already and no one ever stressed the importance or made it

practical or whatever. That is not my point. no blame here. I just

assumed that somewhere along the way one would be exposed to the basics

(how characters are drawn, using a stroke order dictionary). But in

hindsight, I had to do this on my own.

 

To rectify this, I introduced the subject in my herbs 1 class because I

ran ahead of schedule the other day. To demonstrate the difficulty of

this, I showed the class how I could NOT draw a simple basic character

(tian: heavenly) because I had forgotten the stroke order. I started to

say now one might look at the character and think its 2 strokes or 4

strokes , when its actually three. Well, a student who reads chinese yet

was not following what I was saying started screaming about how the

character was wrong and that it was not 2 strokes. she was trying to

point out my stupidity and quite rudely, too. Ironically, that was my

point. I didn't know what I was doing because its hard and tedious and

wenlin makes it so much easier. anyway I had the student come up to the

board and show the class how to correctly draw a character and count

strokes. she clearly has a huge written and verbal chinese vocabulary

(she is half asian, I think). However, when I asked the student how hard

it was for her to look up characters in a dictionary, her reply was

interesting. she said she really can't do that. she learned characters

by being told by teachers and parents what they mean. to this day, she

would still ask her mother to look something up if she needs a dictionary

definition. so even an adept reader and speaker may have little ability

to use the stroke order dictionary.

 

So given the lack of even basic knowledge of chinese is so stark, I have

to concede this point to Ken. Most (if not all) of us on the list who

have been arguing against the necessity to know chinese have all acquired

some basic knowledge in chinese. So the baseline we have been assuming is

perhaps not a baseline at all for the average L.Ac. I think all students

should at least know the little I have just described. Without that basis,

there is little likelihood that one will ever be motivated to go further.

 

Finally, an interesting testament to the power of wenlin occurred the

other day as I gathered a dozen students around the clinic computer to

demo wenlin. I was showing them how easy it is to use the software to

extract information that is in list form, like materia medica entries.

However there are a few sentences in the entry that describe preparation.

After going through the entry a few times, I was pretty sure I understood

the passages on preparation. As I did this, unbeknownst to me, one of my

chinese colleagues had walked up and was looking on. She saw me reading

the entry character by character, but did not realize I was using the

cursor to give the definitions. I started to say that the info on prep

was harder for me to read, but I think it says so and so. As I haltingly

read the prep instruction, dr. Wang exclaimed how good my chinese was.

she had no idea I could read. I laughed and showed her what I was doing,

but her impression that I could actually read chinese says it all.

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre

minds " -- Albert Einstein

[Guest guest]

Wang exclaimed how good my chinese was. she had no idea I could read. I laughed and showed her what I was doing, but her impression that I could actually read chinese says it all.>>>There we go

Alon

[Guest guest]

2. I was very surprised to

discover how little most of my interns know about the chinese

language. It is not their fault; they have plenty on their

plates already and no one ever stressed the importance or made it

practical or whatever. That is not my point. no blame here. I

just assumed that somewhere along the way one would be exposed to the

basics (how characters are drawn, using a stroke order dictionary).

But in hindsight, I had to do this on my own.

 

Some, but very few, schools are trying to do this from the outset in the

Master's program. Touro has one required semester of Chinese, a

year of elective coursework that mirrors other courses students are

taking and an honor's pathway in Chinese translation. We also have

many Chinese speakers on the faculty and all of us assume that students

have a basic understanding and continue to introduce terminology

throughout our courses. However, I can see where wenlin would

indeed simplify the process for them. Glad to hear that you are

getting students interested in Chinese - too bad all of the schools don't

try to inspire that interest at the outset.

Marnae

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

voice:

fax:

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds " -- Albert Einstein

</blockquote></x-html>

 

Marnae C. Ergil, M.A, M.S., L.Ac.

Huntington Herbs & Acupuncture

(631) 549-6755

[Guest guest]

et al,

 

>

> So given the lack of even basic knowledge of chinese is so stark, I

have

> to concede this point to Ken. Most (if not all) of us on the list

who

> have been arguing against the necessity to know chinese have all

acquired

> some basic knowledge in chinese. So the baseline we have been

assuming is

> perhaps not a baseline at all for the average L.Ac. I think all

students

> should at least know the little I have just described. Without

that basis,

> there is little likelihood that one will ever be motivated to go

further.

 

When you deny someone access to the

meanings of the words and terms you

force them to use to describe what

they are reading, studying, and learning

to apply, you doom them to a future

plagued with confusion and misunderstanding.

 

And when you tolerate the continuation

of standards of instruction and examination

that ignore the most basic issues related

to terminology, definitions of basic concepts,

and access to the language and literature

of the subject, you foster an educational

infrastructure that constantly undermines

the growth and development of the subject

and the professional practice.

 

It's only hard work.

 

It's cool that you have discovered a useful

tool to help get the work done, but what

matters is getting the work done.

 

 

>

> Finally, an interesting testament to the power of wenlin occurred

the

> other day as I gathered a dozen students around the clinic computer

to

> demo wenlin. I was showing them how easy it is to use the software

to

> extract information that is in list form, like materia medica

entries.

> However there are a few sentences in the entry that describe

preparation.

> After going through the entry a few times, I was pretty sure I

understood

> the passages on preparation. As I did this, unbeknownst to me, one

of my

> chinese colleagues had walked up and was looking on. She saw me

reading

> the entry character by character, but did not realize I was using

the

> cursor to give the definitions. I started to say that the info on

prep

> was harder for me to read, but I think it says so and so. As I

haltingly

> read the prep instruction, dr. Wang exclaimed how good my chinese

was.

> she had no idea I could read. I laughed and showed her what I was

doing,

> but her impression that I could actually read chinese says it all.

 

Again, I only want to raise a flag of

caution when it comes to learning to

walk with crutches aka known as

automation of intelligence and, of course

simultaneouslz of ignorance.

 

I am all in favor of development of

automata, software, and tools of all

sorts. But the tools are not the task.

 

And what we know as gong fu in Chinese

is indispensable to the development,

cultivation, and refinement of the skills

that are required not just to understand

the terms and theories of Chinese medicine

but to put them into practice and learn

what they really mean.

 

Ken