Blackout College Essay

I don’t often witness the day-to-day significance of language — its ability to connect people, form lasting bonds, and mend old ones. A month before visiting my grandmother in India, I reflected on the distance in our relationship, a distance due to a language barrier. I speak English every day, at home and at school, so I fell out of touch with my mother tongue, Marathi, the language my grandmother speaks. I withheld myself from learning more about my family and my parents, missing out on the opportunity to learn more about myself and immerse myself in my culture, despite the technology that would help polish my Marathi. Two years ago, I suddenly decided to brush up on my Marathi. I started practicing it with my parents at home before an upcoming India visit. Ironically, working to re-learn a language I hadn’t practiced in a while led me on my quest to have meaningful conversations.  Although technology can separate people and lead to superficial conversations, I saw technology was a way to talk to my grandma  and rebuild relationships with my family, with whom I was growing distant. At the same time, I found myself rediscovering the power technology has to bring people together across generations, and the deep relationships you can build with family by spending dedicated time with them. 

Originally, my plan was to surprise my relatives, specifically my grandma, with my ability to initiate conversations rather than simply respond to questions monosyllabically. Putting some lingering insecurities aside, when the opportunity presented itself to help my grandma use WhatsApp, I leaped at the chance. 

I knew I had to make do with my limited vocabulary, so I tried to explain since I was what I was saying using the words I knew. Fortunately, I was very familiar with WhatsApp,, so even as my explanations grew lengthy, I was able to make progress and my grandma slowly began nodding. This gave me confidence, so I tried asking her what she understood, which helped guide the conversation. I stumbled my way through my explanations and had my grandma practice sending a few messages. Soon enough, she was sending the messages correctly, and my conversation with my grandma, who I used to speak to for 5 minutes at a time, max, had lasted for almost half an hour. And, I taught her something new! 

I’ll never forget that conversation and what it’s done. Telling my grandma that we could talk when I was in the United States through WhatsApp and seeing her face light up will be a memory I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. In the time I spent with her, I had begun to develop a bond stemming from shared language, that made me feel more connected to my family and where my parents came from.

This made a huge impact on her life and mine. I was able to share band recording performances and pictures of me at Model UN and HOSA competitions. WhatsApp has now formed a bridge between us that has allowed us to grow much closer, making me feel incredibly grateful for my family and the support they offer. I’ve been proud of being able to connect with her individually and showing her how to utilize technology to connect with the rest of my family and see her grandkids from who live 8,000 miles away growing up. Now, every time she sees my sister and I post something about one of our recent accomplishments on our group chat, my grandma now calls my family as if we lived down the street. It is so rewarding to hear her voice from thousands of miles away knowing I worked to improve my Marathi skills to better communicate with her and make this possible.

This experience of overcoming my hesitation and insecurities has reminded me to not fall out of touch with the language again, having witnessed the interconnections between language and technology. I hope to take this experience forward, relying on the languages I know, to connect with future patients who come from different cultures and may be uncomfortable due to a language barrier. At large, I hope to capitalize on the fundamental power of language to bring us closer to the disconnected.