🪶A Letter for You — My Journey, Unfolding
- Angelica Garcia Genel
- Apr 8
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 19
Sometimes I wonder what I'm genuinely trying to accomplish here. Why am I so passionate about advancing this project? I mentally list the reasons why I shouldn't. But my journey has given me a unique perspective.
So... Who am I?
I've been an immigrant Spanish-speaking patient, anxiously rehearsing how to explain my symptoms in a language that doesn't feel like home. I've been an over-the-phone medical interpreter, translating pain and fear across language barriers during those strange days when time itself seemed to fold inward—when the world retreated behind doors and windows became the only frames through which we witnessed life continuing.
A transformative Experience: COVID-19
I listened from a distance while everyone wore masks. Pronunciation was muffled. Technology failed. The background noise was constant, and machines were 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.
The weight of it settled in my chest. 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 miss 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 to the healthcare professional what I had in my notes. Meanwhile, they would grow increasingly distressed as the news delivery became agonizing. 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 today: 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.
My Proposal for You
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 and culture, we create space for understanding that transcends words alone.
Each word you learn is a key. Each cultural perspective is 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
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