Translator teaches students tolerance

This translator understands how hard it is to learn English and helps patients in hospitals communicate with doctors and nurses. DP

By BRENDAN deROODE WEST, Evening Sun Reporter

EveningSun.com: To Francy Zepeda, different cultures are the lifeblood of the United States.

To ask people to forget their cultures and blend in would be like asking them to give up their souls, she said.

Zepeda, a translator at Gettysburg Hospital, spoke to seventh- and eighth-grade students at Emory H. Markle Intermediate School last week about communication.

Born in Puerto Rico, Zepeda moved to the mainland when she was 10. And when she was 16. And then again when she was 23.

"That time, I stayed," she told the class.

She went back to Puerto Rico the first two times because she couldn't communicate with anyone in the United States, she said.

Communication is her passion, and eventually led her to teach herself English over five years.

"I didn't have anyone to tell me what my teacher wanted me to do," she said of going to school the first time. "I didn't have anyone to talk to."

The second time, she worked with her brother picking oranges in Florida, something she calls "one of the worst jobs to have."

When she came back again, it was with her first husband. The two eventually settled in Biglerville, where her husband found work. But that left Zepeda with no one to talk to during the day.

"I was trapped," she said. "When you want to learn so badly, you put more attention into it."

She turned that attention toward teaching herself through daytime TV – specifically Oprah.
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