BE the Interpreter

One day I was getting ready to call a patient from the waiting area  to begin his eye exam. He had marked “Spanish” as his preferred language on the intake forms, so I walked out to greet him.

He was sitting in the waiting area with a woman who looked about his age, and a younger man.  I called his name:

“Sr. Vasquez*, podemos empezar el examen ahora. Por favor, venga conmigo.”

*(names changed to protect patient privacy)

He got up and followed me, and the woman he was with stayed seated. But the young man stood up and trailed behind us toward the exam room.

I had just motioned for the patient to sit in the exam chair, when the patient’s ?friend ?family member reached the door.

“I’ve come to do the translation.”

I felt a twinge of irritation, but kept my composure,

“Oh, no es necesario – yo hablo español. Why? Is my Spanish that bad?”

The young man said “No!” and started laughing, and then I laughed, and then he turned and went back to the waiting area.

I shut the door and proceeded with the eye exam.

The truth is, if this man wanted to come into the room, or if the patient himself had insisted, I certainly would have allowed him to keep the patient company while I did the exam. It’s just, as I’ve said before many times in this blog, my attitude toward the use of Spanish during a medical exam runs a sinusoidal gamut of emotions, changing on any given day and even throughout the course of one day.

I go from feeling confident in my second language abilities, to being unsure. I feel frustration, at having to work harder, at having to think to communicate, and then there are the days when it’s easier and I’m more relaxed in my speech. At times I’m resentful, that out of the group of doctors where I work, I’m assigned all the Spanish –speaking patients while the other docs get to work comfortably in their native English. But almost simultaneously, I feel personal pride and a bit superior to these doctors, knowing I provide care in two languages. Knowing I am growing an ability and a talent that they lack, and it’s an ability that is not confined only to the exam room. Being able to communicate in Spanish – or, really, any language beyond our native one- widens our scope of interaction with the people around us. It broadens horizons. It enlarges our world. The other docs I work with live in a fish bowl. I’m sailing the high seas.

They say you have to push yourself outside your comfort zone to grow. Growth and change are uncomfortable. I have to remind myself of this constantly – when I get frustrated from forgetting a vocabulary word or from having to ask the patient to repeat himself more slowly so I can understand.  I have to remind myself that if I keep pushing ahead, what feels foreign will become second nature. Second nature means I can work more quickly and efficiently in Spanish.  And it really is to my advantage and to the advantage of my patient if I put in this extra effort.

There’s a poignant scene in an old Jim Carrey movie that I like, Bruce Almighty, that I’m reminded of at this time.  Morgan Freeman, aka God, endows his protégé Bruce (Jim Carrey) with all his powers.  Bruce takes the use of those powers to an extreme and to his advantage: walking on water, changing his beat-up old car into a sports car, dragging the moon closer to his house for a romantic evening, etc etc. But in the end, Freeman tells Bruce that all of his antics amount to nothing more than magic tricks. He tells Bruce, “You want a miracle? Be the Miracle!” After this Bruce, aka Jim Carrey, stops self-serving with these magical acts and instead simply reaches out and helps other people.

Similarly, I say, “You want an interpreter? Be the Interpreter!”  You want to communicate directly with your patient? You do the communication! So when my patient’s ?friend ?family member approached me and said,

“I’ve come to do the translation.” (he meant interpretation, but who’s mincing words?)

I just wanted to cut out the third party. Communication is clearer, faster and to-the-point when there is no middle man.

“No es necesario. Soy la traductora. Yo soy, la intérprete.”

2016 Adirondack Balloon Festival, Queensbury, NY