Book excerpt: Medical Language Accelerated approaches medical terminology not as words to be memorized but as a language to be learned. If you treat medical terminology as a language and learn how to read terms like sentences, you will be able to communicate clearly as a health care professional and will be a full participant in the culture of medicine. Memorizing definitions is equal to a traveler memorizing a few phrases in another language to help during a brief vacation: It will help a traveler survive for a few days. But if one is going to live in another culture for an extended period of time, learning to speak and understand the language becomes essential.