Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!??

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - Printable Version

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Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - MeNoSavvy - 2008-12-22

These last couple of months, I have been building up the amount of Japanese I study. Lately though it has really been messing with my eyesight!

I wear glasses but my current prescription is OK as I just had it checked, my visual acuity is normal and I don't have trouble seeing what is written. But I'm finding with longer study sessions, especially if I'm mining from printed materials with a smaller font, my eyes are starting to feel strained. It has gotten to the point where only short study sessions are making my eyes feel funny and I don't want to continue.

I think I might have to cut back on the study, or find some sources with a bigger font, or get a massive new monitor! My current monitor is old and only a 17". Maybe if I get a bigger monitor with better contrast it will help? Even quite large monitors are getting pretty cheap now. What size monitor do you use?

Maybe part of the problem is constantly having to refocus my eyes from the book which is flat and near the keyboard, to the monitor which is further away.

Am I the only one with this problem? Thanks for any advice. Maybe I will stop mining sentences for a while and just use iKnow which I've been meaning to try but haven't got around to yet !

Compounding the problem is I work all day on spreadsheets, writing software etc. So my eyes don't get a chance to have much of a break and focus on stuff in the distance.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - bodhisamaya - 2008-12-22

亜 Reading ASIAN languages for TWO hours might make you CROSS-EYED

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - iSoron - 2008-12-22

MeNoSavvy Wrote:My current monitor is old and only a 17".

Is it a CRT? If it is, get rid of it, as soon as you can.

bodhisamaya Wrote:亜 Reading ASIAN languages for TWO hours might make you CROSS-EYED

I think RTK is beginning to AFFECT your COMMUNICATION skills.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - liosama - 2008-12-22

iSoron Wrote:Is it a CRT? If it is, get rid of it, as soon as you can.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/lionoff/DSC01663.JPG
CRT > all.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - ファブリス - 2008-12-22

If it's a CRT look for Desktop > Settings > Advanced > Monitor and try to set the Screen Refresh Rate at 85hz. 60hz is straining on the eyes, especially in the dark. If you focus your eyes outside of the screen, you should not see the image flicker.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - Tobberoth - 2008-12-22

Personally I'm overly sensitive to bad refresh rates. Anything below 70 on a CRT and I get a headache right away. Good thing I have a 22" flat screen bought in Japan. Unfortunately it seems to have massive syncing issues in Linux so I get headaches anyway Sad

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - liosama - 2008-12-22

Anything below 100 for me kills my eyes Sad

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - theasianpleaser - 2008-12-22

I've been using a 15.4 inch monitor on my laptop with a 60Hz refresh rate. Then again I use my computer all day, so my eyes feel BLAH at the end of the day

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - Zarxrax - 2008-12-22

I've got a 21" crt which I love. It was only $150 a few years ago, back when a similar sized lcd would have costed like $1000. I don't know how much flat monitors sell for today though.

Most browsers let you change the font size of pages you are viewing, too. I usually make japanese text bigger.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - yukamina - 2008-12-22

Tobberoth Wrote:Personally I'm overly sensitive to bad refresh rates. Anything below 70 on a CRT and I get a headache right away. Good thing I have a 22" flat screen bought in Japan. Unfortunately it seems to have massive syncing issues in Linux so I get headaches anyway

Wow, I never noticed my new monitor doesn't flicker like my old one... I'm learning so much in this thread Smile

My issue with my new monitor(19 in), is that with the higher resolution, the text is smaller, which is hard on the eyes. I usually increase the font size when I'm online. The other problem is that the screen is always so bright.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - stehr - 2008-12-22

When my eyes start getting strained, eye stretches/exercises usually help a lot. The ones I find most useful are rolling my eyes, crossing my eyes, and focusing on very close objects followed by a very far object. Also taking catnaps (10-15 min) helps too.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - Transparent_Aluminium - 2008-12-22

LCDs are so much better, especially for text since they don't flicker at all. You can now get a 22 inch for under 200$. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009145). No reason not to get one in my opinion. Also, Yukamina, most LCDs are very bright these days and you should turn down the brightness to 50% or less.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - jettyke - 2011-02-27

Old thread, but this problem still concerns me in 2011.

Although my perfect eyesight started getting worse about 5 years ago, I think that hardcore computer based Japanese learning and Grooving to music with my 4 big surround speakers has made things worse as to eyesight and tinnitus.

Flux maybe helps, but it's not enough.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - bebio - 2011-02-27

One thing that I can suggest (besides taking a break now an then), is that it is essential to have the eyes changing direction. if you force the eyes to look at the same thing for a long period, the muscles will become strained.

Usually, I do my Japanese reading (it is related to my research) by having my laptop with a website and rikaichan enabled (Important: use the Ctrl and "+" shortcut in Firefox or Chrome to greatly magnify the text rendered in the screen!), and next to it there are some photocopies of japanese text with a magnifying glass that increases the size of the text. I read the text in the computer for a while, then after a couple of minutes I switch to the photocopied pages with the magnifying glass, and after reading a few sentences I write notes in Japanese in a notebook that I placed next to the photocopies. By regularly switching between these 3 targets, and occasionally going to the toilet or having a snack, my eyes can go for several hours.

If you are using Anki, change the Card settings so that the fonts can appear in extra-huge size.

Edit: I forgot to mention that my computer is running Flux at the highest setting of darkness (meaning, the screen is constantly looking a bit purple), and the refresh rate is high. Also, keep drinking liquids (forget soda or tea, drink mostly water or hydrating sports drinks), so that the eyes will not go so dry. In a last case scenario, keep some eye drops, or even better, artificial tears nearby.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - jettyke - 2011-02-27

I've been paying close to none attention towards my eyesight in the last 5 years, I've been on the computer for days in rows, up at night a lot.

And now in the lamplight in my room I can only see things that are 1m-1.5 meters from my eyes clearly. It's different with daylight though, as my lamplights are pretty low.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - howtwosavealif3 - 2011-02-27

staring at the computer for long periods of time without breaks i s obviously bad for your eyes.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - astendra - 2011-02-28

Can't speak for the science behind this, but it might be a genetic predisposition as well. I didn't have any problems with my eyesight until a couple of years ago, and while I spend most of my time at a computer, I doubt I could have avoided it since all of my close relatives are myopic, whether they use the computer alot or not.

Studying Japanese is bad for eyesight !!!?? - jettyke - 2011-02-28

astendra Wrote:Can't speak for the science behind this, but it might be a genetic predisposition as well. I didn't have any problems with my eyesight until a couple of years ago, and while I spend most of my time at a computer, I doubt I could have avoided it since all of my close relatives are myopic, whether they use the computer alot or not.

All my relatives have had good eyes.