Noticing ADHD quarks while learning Japanese

I got diagnosed with ADHD in 2021, which was really helpful to live my life but that’s another topic I will address eventually.

During that year I did a lot self-reflection and studied a lot about neurodiversity, so I’m not unfamiliar with the symptoms of ADHD.

Little did I know, it’s only recently I noticed some quarks I have while studying Japanese. To be more specific there are two that actively impair my ability to learn properly.

The first one is not so much of a discovery but something I heavily notice when working on listening exercises for the JLPT. Which it’s about the struggle to follow verbal instruction.

Those tests asks you to follow a conversation and often list sequential events, which by the 3rd or 4th sentence I already forgot what were the first 2.

Other times they simply ask you as the first sentence what one of the character will do right after the conversation - usually asking about the male or female to easily differentiate. But when the conversation start I already forgot about which character I’m supposed to answer.

To be honest, following verbal instruction is a challenge in any languages for me, but since my level in Japanese is still not good enough I’ve got to concentrate a lot more on each words spoken that I immediately forget what was just said.

Having said that, it’s usually much easier when I can see the person talking, lips moving accordingly to what it’s spoken, and facial expression to give more context.

The second struggle I have is more of a comorbidity. Something to do with auditory processing disorder, auditory dyslexia to be precise. Which I noticed I also have in French and English but not as severe as in Japanese.

Being an ideogram language makes it harder to interpret what I read into sound, and often mix up the order of syllabes. Turning the reading of “怪我” (kega/injury) into “外科” (geka/surgery), or reading “どこも”(dokomo/wherever) but understanding “子供” (kodomo/children).

This usually doesn’t affect my listening ability but my reading for sure. A little bit my way of talking too but only slightly more than English or French (there are words I got to repeat multiple times in my head before being able to speak it).

Overall, I find it all very interesting, and I never thought about it before. And only truly realize my struggle with auditory dyslexia through learning Japanese. Although there was a huge hint, my mom often tell the story about when I was a kid a curious about animal’s names. I learned about the cow, “vache” (/vaʃ/) in French, and then the horse, “cheval” (/ʃval) in French. But I insisted to call the horse “vache” as well.