Nguyen Dinh Van, May 25, 2016

HOW TO LEARN MEDICAL ENGLISH THROUGH TEXTBOOKS

Which textbooks should be used?
You should pick up just a few among hundreds of medical textbooks, and stick with them.
They might be very expensive (as textbooks always are), but is worth it. If you can’t afford
buying, use old editions from the library. They are still good for learning English, even
though their contents may be not up-to-date. My suggestion of the list of textbooks are:
For the beginners: Human Anatomy & Physiology by Elaine N. Marieb and Katja
Hoehn. This textbook is in its 10th edition now, but the 1st edition is still okay! (Tip: when
you see a textbook passes over the 5th edition, it’s really good textbook, otherwise nobody
mind to print it). This textbook is not in-depth for medical students, but your purpose
here is learning English, not learning medicine. If you want to learn real medical
physiology in English, there’s a very good textbook: Guyton’s Textbook of Medical
Physiology, the newest editions are from Guyton and Hall. This textbook was always in
my bed when I was a medical student.
The reason why I like Marieb’s textbook because (1) it’s clear, (2) easy to understand and
(3) a lots of colored pictures! Further more it gives you pronunciation in a easy way (not
IPA) every time you learn a new medical term. You can jump to any chapter to read, or
jump back and forth. The index is very elaborated, and useful for your search.
Anatomy: Frank Netter’s series are the best. Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy is not
prestigious like it was before. Anatomy books are the toughest to digest, even to
American medical students, because you have to remember the whole world of new
strange words! If the textbook is without pictures and graphs, it’s useless.
Internal medicine: Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine is the standard, but
don’t study on it! It serves best as a reference when you concentrate on a topic.
Otherwise, use Goldman-Cecil Medicine (or Cecil-Loeb in the old days) as an ideal
textbook to read.
Surgery: there’re general textbook such as Sabiston’s and surgical procedures in varieties.
You pick.
How to read a textbook efficiently
Now I go back to give you some tips and tricks. Suppose we use Marieb’s textbook as a
source of learning medical English.
-Read it when you are relaxing at leisure time. One paragraph at a time. No need to read
the whole chapter. Pick up which chapter is interesting to you most, or chapter related to
your current Vietnamese courses.
-Don’t read it when you’re in stress or busy. You’ll forget everything.
-Use markers (yellow, blue, and red) highline words or phrase that you need to
remember. IMPORTANT!!! A textbook without highline by YOU is a textbook not in
a very good use! If you want your book in the mint condition, well, it’s better to give the
book to somebody else rather than study on it.
-Do all exercises from the chapter. It’s the best way to reinforce your vocabulary.
How to remember what you read
First, motivation is very important. You remember more if you like to read rather than
you are forced to read. So again, use you leisure time in a quiet space for reading. When
you feel it’s so boring, jump to another chapter or just stop reading.
When you are reading, you have to deal with the text and its medical terms. Of course,
the more frequent the word is before your eyes, the easier you remember. That’s why I
urge you to read and read again paragraphs in the chapters. Now, because most of the
medical terms are new to you, I give you more tips and tricks to help you to remember
the spellings and their meaning:
1. Some of them have Greek or Latin roots. When you know the meaning of each
roots, it helps you to remember. For example: epiphysis vs. diaphysis (epi =upon,
on top; dia =through, from one end to another; physis =growth). So epiphysis
should be the bone end, and diaphysis should be the bone shaft.
2. Even in the case you couldn’t find the root, you can divide the term into smaller
parts. This trick makes easier to remember the spelling and easier to pronounce
correctly (Remember Vietnamese language is monosyllable, so split an English
term into several syllables make you feel more comfortable). For example:
Thalassemia into Thalas-se-mias, sphygmomanometer into sphyg-mo-mano-
meter. Attention! Split the term into something by the way you can remember; it’s
not necessary the exact hyphens in the dictionary.
3. Chain the term to another word you already know, even sometimes they are not
related to each other at all, for the sake of remembering. For example: adductor vs.
abductor. You chain adductor to addition, that is add in, that is going in. Then
you chain abductor to absent (non sense here!), that is out, going out.
A very smart chaining you can see here is how medical students remember the
names of the tarsal bones of the foot: the calcaneus at the bottom is as a calcified
rock, the talus sits on it and declares “I’m the tallest!” The bone just below doesn’t
agree, it replies “Never” (navicular). The three next bones, cuneiforms also say
“Couldn’t be!” And the lowest one, the cuboid has to say “Could be!”

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 Source: Stephen Goldberg, Clinical Anatomy made ridiculously simple

4. Chunk the related terms into groups, such as “cell-cellular-intracellular-

extracellular-cellulitis”, or “hypotonic-hypertonic-isotonic”, “hypertension-
hypotension”, etc.
5. Graph or picture: “a picture is worth a thousand words”, an English proverb. You
can’t learn microscopic structure of the cell or anatomy of the arm without
pictures. Sometimes picture is used as an analogue for the sake of memory. The
example below using the bull’s head image for the right scapular (and vice versa)

[1] coracoid process (“front” ear) [2] acromion (“rear” ear) [3] scapular spine [4] glenoid cavity
[5] neck of the humerus.
Source: Stephen Goldberg, Clinical Anatomy made ridiculously simple

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6. Mnemonics (ni-MON-icks) is special way of chaining a big group of objects in
special order into a mantra, otherwise it’s not easy to remember. In medicine, we
use a lot of mnemonics. For example: the 12 pairs of cranial nerves.

CRANIAL NERVES MNEMONICS for name MNEMONICS for function

I Olfactory Oh Some s=sensory
II Optic Oh Say m=motor
III Oculomotor Oh Mary b=both
IV Trochlear To Money
V Trigeminal Take But
VI Abduction A My
VII Facial Family Brother
VIII Vestibulocochlear Vacation! Says
IX Glossopharyngyal Go Big
X Vagus Vegas Brain
XI Accessory And Matters
XII Hypoglossal Hawaii Most

And this is mnemonics for the 12 cranial nerves in Vietnamese I got when I was
student at the University of Saigon, Faculty of Sciences 44 years ago, still remember!

I Khứu giác Khi

II Thị giác Thi
III Vận nhãn Vì
IV Cảm động (Ròng rọc) Cấm
V Tam thoa Tự
VI Vận nhãn ngoài Vị
VII Mặt Mà
VIII Tiền đình-Ốc tai Ta
IX Thiệt hầu Tất
X Phế vị Phải
XI Gai sống (Phụ) Gá
XII Hạ thiệt Hàng