Learning Medical/Technical Chinese

[ZC]

I have sort of stumbled backward into a bit of an awkward situation. I am a US student who speaks a very small amount of Mandarin (HSK ~2) taking classes in English in Shanghai. I assumed that all lectures would be in English, but there is a class I am absolutely required to take starting in ~7 months that is only taught in Chinese. The class will cover the use and development of medical technology in a hospital setting. While I have set up an accelerated learning schedule for general Chinese, I do not know of any way to learn the electrical engineering and medical language that I will need. Does anyone know of a good resource or starting point to help me with this? Thanks!

[somethingfunny]

A good starting point would be the person who teaches the course.

 

How long have you been learning Chinese?

[艾墨本]

Ask a Chinese classmate for the introductory textbooks used for those topics. Those books tend to systematically explain relevant technical terms and will also serve as a point of comparison for your Chinese level. Being able to read that will be your goal.

 

That said, even if that is your goal, I don’t recommend skipping right up to it. Continue systematically learning Chinese. Getting to the necessary level in the time you have is full time effort, think 8 hours of Chinese study a day for the next seven months. If you have the finances available, consider a tutoring service that can offer personalized study plans like GoEast. 

 

Everyday should be a mix of adding new content, reviewing previous content, practicing using the language in the real world with real people, add tons of comprehensible input a la the chairman’s bao or graded readers. Actually, Du Chinese is made by GoEast, though I prefer TCB and Mandarin Companion Graded Readers.

 

 

[ZC]

@somethingfunny

I have been studying on my own/with Rosettastone for ~4 months, but I only have ~2 weeks of classroom formal learning. Also that's a really god idea, I have not met the professor teaching the class yet, but it definitely is a good idea, especially to let them know about my situation.

 

@艾墨本

Thanks! I hadn't even thought about using intro books, but it sounds like a really great strategy! Honestly, I'm thrilled that you did not simply say that what I wanted was impossible, which was sort of my gut reaction of needing to jump 2+ hsk levels in ~half a year! I might not be able to maintain 8 hours per day because of other classes, but I can definitely try! Thanks for suggesting some places to look for tutoring programs! I would have had no idea which to take seriously (within reason).  Hopefully if I put in a whole lot of effort and get a whole lot of help from friends I can at least give it a real shot.

[Luxi]

This doesn't specifically address hospital situations or equiment, but it may help you overcome the shock of attending lectures in Chinese, and give you some basic terms and expressions related to TCM in Chinese. There are 2 MOOCs on Chinese medicine in Coursera, both arranged by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 上海中医药大学,  and starting on 19 February.

You can use Baidu Translate / Google Translate to translate the introduction pages and syllabus, I'm sure they are edited translations

 

Xinglin treasures - Understanding Chinese medicine
《杏林探宝——认知中药》

https://www.coursera.org/learn/zhong-yao-zhi-shi#syllabus

 中医药大学（Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine）
Taught by: Yang Bai-Chan , Professor, doctoral tutor  
Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

 

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Traditional Culture
中医药与中华传统文化
https://www.coursera.org/learn/zhong-yi-yao-wen-hua
Taught by:  Peng Chongsheng, Associate Professor School of Pharmacy

 

Both are taught in Chinese with English and Chinese (simplified) subtitles, there's an interactive transcript following the audio in Chinese and in English. Video lectures and transcripts can be downloaded. They are free, but there's a charge if you want a certificate.

[somethingfunny]

I have to disagree slightly with 艾墨本.

 

While I think your normal study should be the main focus of your time, if you can get hold of the materials now, then I personally would start giving over some time to that.  Maybe just 10% of total Chinese language time, but just something to get me started.  I'd probably try learning the most frequent medical and technology vocabulary, and I would also try to find materials in English that cover the same content and pre-learn the course in English.  This way you'll already know what they're talking about when it comes up in Chinese.

[happy_hyaena]

I can't speak for the medical field but a lot of engineering terms I've encountered feel really "obvious" if you already know them in English, like they were almost literally translated. That's very good for you since the types of texts you will have to read will probably be difficult due to the new vocabulary, and not due to having to analyze convoluted and flowery language.

[EnergyReaper]

Medicine is also very hard to learn for native Chinese due to too many terms. I guess you are gonna focus on western medicine and your biggest challenge will be the  transliteration of English terms to Chinese version. e.g. remembering 盘尼西林 and Penicillin are also both difficult to a native Chinese .

[abcdefg]

On 2/2/2018 at 5:18 AM, 艾墨本 said:

Everyday should be a mix of adding new content, reviewing previous content, practicing using the language in the real world with real people, add tons of comprehensible input a la the chairman’s bao or graded readers.

 

I like that as a general recipe for learning the language. 

[艾墨本]

This might be a great vocab list to work from:

 

Medical Mandarin Chinese - Defense Language Institute LSK

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1848818773

[ZC]

That looks great! Just having an audio pronunciation guide is been one of the most helpful things for me! I also was able to find the professor and he helped me to find a medical language tutor from March forward!

[Luxi]

This book series may help you, some include mp3s. The link below is to a seller in Hong Kong, but you can get from your University library or order them at PCR prices from big bookshops in your area, or from Amazon cn.

https://www.purpleculture.net/practical-medical-chinese-bs-992/