If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be and why?

The skill I wish I could master, more than any other, is the ability to learn languages. As our world gets smaller due to innovations in technology and travel, I have found myself in many situations where being able to communicate clearly with someone who doesn’t speak my language would be very helpful.

This is never more true than when it comes to my career in healthcare. Fortunately for me, most of our non-English speaking patients speak Spanish, and I have a passable ability to communicate with them. But I wish it was better.

I’d love to be able to read and fully comprehend my favorite French and German philosophers in their native languages. Translations sacrifice a lot of nuance and subtext. I’d love to be able to read Chinese and Japanese to better understand their rich culture and history. I wish I knew Scots Gaelic, the mother tongue of my ancestors.

I often joke with my patients that out of all technology available to the people in Star Trek, I would most like to have a medical tricorder. But a universal translator is a close second.