Editor's Essay

Whenever I run out of ideas, I usually take some time off work and start contemplating myself, my world in the hope of finding something interesting to write. In my editing job, it is a must to have more creative ideas rather than just rambling about boring content with advanced and fancy English vocabulary. It was not an exception this time as well. After writing one article in the morning, I did not know what else I should write today. It seemed to me that I covered all the topics that I had to. According to my job responsibilities, I need to write two articles per day. That is the minimum. Some people good with words and ideas might say writing two articles do not pose them a problem. However, writing medical articles (posts) in a language that would be easy to understand for patients was not a piece of cake. That is the real challenge. You do not believe me, do you? So today, I will tell you more about my job as a medical coordinator at She's Plastic Surgery Clinic.

First of all, let me warn you. If you are kind of a reader who does not like this format or style of writing, it is up to you to continue reading it. From the title and the introduction part, you might have guessed what my job is. Yes, you are right. I work as a medical coordinator or consultant at one small 2-floor plastic surgery clinic in Busan, South Korea. I started working in September, and it has been almost three months. And I must say that during these three months, I learned so many things that I did not learn at high school and university. I want to tell just the main idea or lessons of what I experienced working as a medical consultant here, but I want to ramble a while before jumping to the gist of this writing.

At first, when I got this job offer, I thought that my main task would be solely translating or interpreting international customers to have surgery at our clinic. But it sounds easy to translate from one language into another. In reality, it requires a lot of cognitive resources to switch languages and explain medical terms or expressions in an understandable way to the customers. No matter how fluent or perfect one is with languages, it does not guarantee that you can translate or interpret impeccably in that language. In my case, I use three languages at the same time almost every day (Russian, English, and Korean). One might think that is the real challenge. However, what I think is a big challenge is writing medical articles daily. I like reading scientific and medical articles, but I have never imagined myself working in this field. That was a total surprise for me. I cannot deny that I love writing and reading. But writing about plastic surgery was something new to me, especially for a man.

Having realized that my writings are the essential determinants of whether or not a patient would love to undergo surgery, I tripled my efforts by downloading online Gray's anatomy textbook to learn better about things that I am writing in my articles. I started to feel more responsibility for my work, writing, words, and expressions whenever I translate or interpret. At first, it was so stressful because I did not feel comfortable how to convey that kind of complex language in a simple way for the patients. I even thought of giving up and do something less sophisticated and more comfortable. Eventually, I could find the courage and patience to continue challenging myself. And I feel like I made the right choice because I am learning new things, challenging every day, acquiring necessary communication skills, and, above all, I like what I am doing. I stopped seeking excuses such as I am not good enough or my language skills are not professional for this job. Nonetheless, I accepted myself with all my flaws and insecurities, and I created a room for humility and improvement. To be continued.