Terminology of any field of study looks unfamiliar at first sight. It's even worse when it's in another language. However, either by saying it aloud to get used to the pronunciation and feel of the specific language or carefully going over the definition, it will no more be totally uncontrollable.

Terminology of Korean Medicine, especially when it is put in English, can be even harder for a number of reasons. First, it is about medicine, one of specialized fields that comes with a whole lot of technical terms. Second, there is a problem of translation from Korean to English. With Eastern medicine gaining popularity in the Western world, there has been on-going works on translating medical texts from the ancient times. Unfortunately, they are mainly direct translations, focused on the "translation" but not actually on how well the original text has been switched to English for full comprehension of the readers. Some more explanation or background knowledge will certainly enhance reader's comprehension.

In this article, let me give you a slight idea of how you should approach terminology of Korean Medicine, keeping in mind the above mentioned problems.

First, the terminology of Korean Medicine (or maybe Traditional Chinese Medicine as well), including those used in explaining human physiology, diagnosis, pathological mechanism, and prescriptions and their actions to the diseased body do not one to one correspond to the Western Medicine. There are some similarities they share, and for this reason, the internal organs of Korean Medicine has been put into English as same as to the Western Medical terms, with the first letter capitalized for differentiation. (heart to Heart, kidney to Kidney, stomach to Stomach, etc.)

Second, although definition is important in understanding a field, the definitions don't seem to make readers understand the concept right away. And this halt may confuse people on whether they should keep going on without understanding what the basic term means. But, let me assure you. You may go on, as most parts of Korean Medicine are better understood with knowledge of other parts. Especially, the more basic areas like human physiology may seem very abstract, since it doesn't only mention the human body, but also about the relationship between humans and the environment. Now four years through majoring in Korean Medicine, taking Korean Medical Pathology has also enhanced my understanding in Korean Medical Physiology, and Korean Medical Prescriptionology has helped me getting ideas of herbs learned at Herbology. (This does seem weird, and I could compare it to the knowledge learned on Western Medicine. My school curriculum also has Western Physiology and Pathology as well, and taking Pathology didn't help me understand Physiology better. The two were distinct areas.)

Third, the terms may seem a little "unscientific" in that Korean Medicine doesn't rely on the measurements provided by machines. So, there is no numbers that show what each degree of numbers mean, etc. Rather, you can see how doctors of Korean Medicine possess a great level of observation, looking through the patient and even their subtleness or delicacy. The descriptions of the pulses may seem metaphoric but, once you get the knack of it(it is said that a Korean Medical Doctor-to-be should take the pulses of at least 1,000 different persons to know the pulses.) you should very easily be able to agree to the descriptions.

The mechanism described in fields of pathology and prescriptionology also include figurative phrases, but carefully going over them and comparing that's been dealt with throughout the book, you may see that they are highly "scientific." Here I mean by "scientific" as they work together well to build up to one idea.

Fourth, the terms used especially for diagnosis are benevolence itself. With Four Diagnostic Methods-Looking, Asking, Listening, and Palpitating, the doctors of Korean Medicine catch the patients' ailing points and it is followed by prescriptions. The Four Diagnostic Methods lets the doctor see what machines can never detect as a problem. They enable the doctors to focus on what is really disturbing the patient, not just what the doctor can see from the outside, but also the feeling from the patients' inside. Some patients' may be not talkative or descriptive enough to tell their conditions or even lie for shyness to the doctor. These instances are perceived by the doctors' taking the pulses and the three other diagnostic methods other than listening.