Remember that funny, young Dr. Hiko that Professor Goto
introduced me to on my first day? Turns out Dr. Hiko happens to be one of the
funniest men I’ve ever met. Over the next few days, he came up with some
priceless stuff, which I happened to jot down, pretending I was taking notes on
the medical knowledge he was bestowing upon me.
As we walked through the hospital visiting his patients, everyone he
encountered walked away smiling and laughing.
His joy was contagious and an admirable quality for any physician.
Here’s a sample of Dr. Hiko’s gems:
-“I know to you foreigners, all of us Asians look the same”
-After trading pleasantries and laughs with a cute young
nurse, he pointed to me, and whatever he said, sent the nurse away cracking
up. I happened to catch a word he used,
something that sounded like “Aijean”. I
asked him if “aijean” means student, assuming he cracked a joke about me as his
new American student. He laughed and
explained, “Oh no, Aijin doesn’t mean student! I told her you are my new
mistress!”
-“The next patient we are going to see is suffering from
severe liver failure and has very bad jaundice.
So he’s very yellow. Ok, well,
all of us Asians are yellow, but he’s more yellow!”
Throughout my time with Dr. Hiko, he generously included me
in conversations, introduced me to patients and helped translate between us,
and went out of his way to teach me.
With his perfect English skills and great sense of humor, I couldn’t
have asked for a better teacher. I’ll never forget the most valuable lesson I
learned from Dr. Hiko: Laughter truly is the best medicine.
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