Sometimes I wonder what I'm truly trying to accomplish here. Why am I so passionate about advancing this project? I mentally list the reasons why I shouldn't: I'm not a doctor or healthcare professional. I don't work in the medical field. But my journey has given me a unique perspective.
I've been an over-the-phone medical interpreter, translating pain and fear across language barriers. I've been a patient, anxiously rehearsing how to explain my symptoms in a language that doesn't feel like home. I'm an immigrant who spent decades working to achieve fluency in English, only to still encounter people who look to my Anglo-Saxon husband, silently asking him to repeat in "correct English" what I just said with my strong Mexican accent.
I no longer worry about eliminating my accent. I embrace it, and when people don't understand me, I simply rephrase or find different words. I encourage my Spanish students to do the same and focus on how they are making a difference—many feel judged and out of place when they don't speak the language perfectly in front of their Hispanic relatives. "Embrace your mistakes," I tell them. "They are part of who you are. They tell a unique story about you."
However, the experience that truly shaped me and drives my commitment to you was born from the deep admiration I gained for your field during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working as an over-the-phone interpreter from Mexico for a well-known U.S. interpretation service, I discovered what it feels like to hear pain without being able to do much more than "interpret" it (can you really interpret pain?).
I listened from a distance while everyone wore masks. Pronunciation was muffled. Technology failed. The background noise was constant with machines buzzing. I was the intermediary voice—hearing instructions and diagnoses that I needed to share with confused family members on the other end of the line, unable to be physically near their loved ones, some of whom were intubated.
A profound anxiety would overwhelm me—a feeling of uncertainty about whether I was transmitting everything correctly, as I should. I felt an immense responsibility. I worried that masks might have caused me to mishear something critical or that I had missed something relevant entirely. ("Am I hearing correctly that there's no hope? That... it's time to consider removing life support? My God, I cannot make a mistake with this.") From that place of insecurity, I would repeat back to the healthcare professional what I had in my notes. Meanwhile, they would grow increasingly distressed as the delivery of the news prolonged into an agonizing process. I could understand how, at that moment, they wished they could deliver the news themselves.
That's when I understood something that stays with me to this day: apps, systems, interpreters... they help. Don't get me wrong, I use them all the time. But they don't replace. Nothing substitutes for the power of speaking directly, one-on-one, in the same language, and understanding the cadence of the speaker's cultural depth.
That's why I created Spanish Learning Edge.
It would be unrealistic to say one program will get you there. I've experienced it myself—it takes years of practice and resilience to spring back from the shame of people not understanding you. But as Martin Heidegger wrote in his Carta sobre el Humanismo: "El lenguaje es la casa del ser"—Language is the house of being—and in opening ourselves to another language, we create space for understanding that transcends words alone. Each word you learn is a key. Each cultural insight, a doorway. Together, they open a path between you and your patients that no longer feels like a foreign country.
So... where are you on the path? What tool could make it better?
Con cariño,
Angélica García Genel, Ph.D.
Spanish Learning Edge LLC, Founder
📌Want to learn more?
Join our waitlist for "La Familia: The Heart ❤️ of Latino Culture"—an exploration of family values in Spanish-speaking communities with linguistic tools.
Join and get Early-Bird Pricing + Our Bonus Guide: 👟6 Steps to Work Effectively with Medical Interpreters.
#MedicalSpanish #CulturalCompetency #HealthcareInclusion
