Hi everyone! I wanted to share how my visual impairments impacted my Japanese learning journey and how I’m adapting.
I started studying Japanese in high school, and it came naturally back then. But during my senior year of college and later while studying abroad in Japan, my visual impairments worsened significantly. Suddenly, something that used to feel easy became frustratingly difficult.
In Tokyo, where text is everywhere—on signs, ads, train stations—I felt like I was constantly trying to process everything. Unless I was sleeping, my brain was fried from the sheer amount of visual input. Combined with undiagnosed ADHD, it became overwhelming. I leaned heavily on auditory learning, like listening to conversations and music, because reading and processing visual material was exhausting.
At the time, I didn’t realize my issues with focusing, tracking, and processing visual information, along with symptoms of visual snow (static in vision, afterimages), were the root of the problem. Language school was stressful, which only made things worse, and I often felt like I wasn’t good enough—even though I’d just successfully finished engineering school.
When I returned to the U.S. and started my first full-time job, I kept leaning into auditory learning. And when I returned to Japan a year later for 3 months on a business trip (2024), I could tell that even with minimal study, my Japanese had improved—especially my listening and pronunciation.
Now that I’m back in the U.S., much less stressed, and preparing to move to Japan in 2 years for work, I’ve been able to return to more visual learning. Three weeks ago, I started wearing progressive glasses, and the difference has been noticeable. For the first time in years, I feel like I can handle visual input again, and I’m excited to see how much more progress I can make.
If anyone else has struggled with similar issues or found creative ways to adapt while learning Japanese, I’d love to hear your experiences!
by Routine-Toe-4750