April 2024 Update – Life (Kinda) After Eye Strain

So, I’m just going to jump right into it. I have been dealing with a lot of eye  since the beginning of the year. This has definitely impacted a lot of areas of my life, but right now I’m just going to focus on my studying habits.

Just before my problems started, I was about to start immersing more with things like video games and some career-relevant books that I got from BOOKOFF (a Japanese used book store). I was really excited to try these out, but it turns out that studying (and staring at a page to the degree I had to) was just not happening. In fact, I ended up having to take a 2-month break while my eye problems subsided to the point where I could both work and also do hobby stuff. Thankfully, I’m at the point now where I’m able to do daily flash cards. I also was able to complete a tutoring session without much issue last night, which was great because video calls have been challenging with this condition.

I have been trying to develop my listening skill more since that is one of the few things I can do without having to use my eyes. Specifically, I have been actively listening to podcasts graded for my textbook, and shadowing podcasts that are a little bit trickier. The graded podcasts have been great for comprehensible input, and so that I can get more exposure to grammar points that I usually wouldn’t use or forgot. The more advanced podcasts are so that I can practice speaking at a higher speed. I understand a good amount of them, but at the moment I can’t do a lot of the work of checking transcripts for unknown words. So for now, shadowing them and trying to learn from context is what I can manage.

Despite the constraints, I’ve been having a good time with this shift in learning habits. I think my ear is starting to get a little better and the amount I was able to retain and speak during my lesson wasn’t quite as crap as I thought it might be for someone who took a two-month break. Time will tell to see if these shifts are helpful or not, and to be honest I am also chomping at the bit to be translating the podcast I’m listening to. However, my eye problems won’t allow me to study to the extent I would like to, so I just kind of have to deal with that for now. 

I may try writing a guide about how to study with eye strain problems more effectively, but for now I’m just enjoying being able to study again. Fun (?) fact, a lot of this post was written with some speech to text software because looking at a screen is just that annoying right now.

No promises on another post in the near future (because frankly I’m bad at posting anyway). But, I hope to update with some better eye news (or at least news that my listening is fantastic) at some point in the near future.