people do

June 24, 2003

Thanks for the responses from Z'ev, Marnae, Ken, Joseph et al. I feel

better about the issues and understand better the vocabulary choices. I

have read the articles about these issues. I'm still not convinced of

(all of) his arguments.

For example I can't get over that the Qin Bo Wei book suffers from the

translation choices while the Warm Diseases Book is readable and

eminently more understandable. I got more out of it. The Qin Bo Wei was

a missed opportunity, in my humble opinion. I'm definitely not looking

for an " easy " language system just one that is understandable for

someone who is admittedly dumbed down (in comparison to the impressive

credentials of Wiseman).

My last dander counterflowing example would be depression (speaking of

Qin Bowei) which Wiseman defines as Stagnation. Page 123, " depression,

yu4, stagnation; reduced activity " . His reasoning is that in vernacular

Chinese Yu describes a mental depression. Well, liver's don't get

depressed, people do. One comment Wiseman made was that practitioners

don't have to use these words in front of the patient. Well, as a

supervisor that's pretty impossible and I know I don't agree with the

concept. And try explaining to your patient that his or her liver is

depressed (and picture the patient you are describing it to.)

Annnnd one more thing! ;-) Liver Qi is used as describing a disease

pattern when the Chinese doctors I've talked to have said it is a

vernacular shorthand for Liver invading spleen. So, if I was convinced

that these word choices (and there are just a few, but a very important

few) would make me understand the medicine better I would be right

there. As it is, I see translators often bending language in order to

conform to a standard that impedes comprehension, not furthers it.

OK, my chest is free-flowing, ;-)

doug

> Few individuals in our field have those abilities. Nigel Wiseman is

> one of a few who does. If we leave it to what is 'easy', we will

> continue to 'dumb down' the medicine. Before the terms 'get your

> dander up', try to understand why Nigel chose those terms. He has

> written several articles on the subject, available for download at

>

> On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 03:18 PM, acugrpaz wrote:

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