fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

Emily Liu

Learning the Language

In college, my friend used to joke that my roommates and I were like the United Nations. One was Russian and born in Canada, another was Indian, and another was half Vietnamese and half Caucasian. I’m Chinese. We were sitting in our living room one evening, and I was desperately trying to teach them, “你好, 我的名字是” or “Hello my name is.” I couldn’t help but laugh at their distorted intonations and jumbled order. Until it was my turn to stumble through Russian: “привет меня зовут Emily.” Attempt Hindi: “मेरा नाम Emily है.” And then Vietnamese: “Xin chào, tên tôi là Emily.”

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Seams

Something I learned as a camp counselor is that striking up a conversation with a kid is like striking a match. With my camper Lily, I roamed around in the dark at first, grasping at Disney princesses, sports, books, best friends, and favorite animals. Then she said she was the fastest, faster than her older brother, and the sparks didn’t take long to fly. Soon we were flashing through the dining hall to the music room and then to archery and arts and crafts. I think if she had a motto, it would be “Why walk when you can run?” I lost every race, and, admittedly, not all of them on purpose.

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