The vocabulary nobody practises
Learners accumulate a great deal of language for activity and almost none for internal state. You will have practised ordering food dozens of times and describing how you feel perhaps never, because textbooks and conversation practice both favour the observable.
The consequence is that the language is missing at exactly the moment it is hardest to construct anything. A difficult period is not when you want to be assembling a sentence from grammar, and the words that would carry it have never been said aloud.
So this is worth preparing in advance, the way you would prepare for a medical appointment. Ten words and five sentences, practised while you are fine, so they are available when you are not.
Words for how you are
A small vocabulary covers most of what needs to be said. These are worth learning as production vocabulary, said aloud, rather than as recognition items, because recognising the word for exhausted is no help when you need to produce it.
Note that several of these are physical descriptions. That is not evasion; it is a normal and accepted way to describe a difficult period in Japanese, and it is often the easier opening.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 最近、よく眠れていません。 | Saikin, yoku nemurete imasen. | I have not been sleeping well lately. |
| ストレスがたまっています。 | Sutoresu ga tamatte imasu. | Stress has been building up. |
| 食欲がありません。 | Shokuyoku ga arimasen. | I have no appetite. |
| 気持ちが落ち込んでいます。 | Kimochi ga ochikonde imasu. | I have been feeling low. |
| やる気が出ません。 | Yaruki ga demasen. | I cannot find any motivation. |
| ひとりで抱えきれなくなってきました。 | Hitori de kakaekirenaku natte kimashita. | It has become too much to carry alone. |
The first three are physical and are the easiest to say. In many settings they open the conversation that the last three describe.
How much to say, and to whom
Disclosure norms vary by relationship, and misjudging them is a common source of discomfort in either direction: saying too much to a colleague, or too little to a doctor who needed to know.
The practical guide is that professionals need detail, close friends can take detail, and workplaces generally want the practical consequence rather than the internal state.
| Who | How much | Frame it as |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor | Everything | Symptoms and duration |
| Close friend | As much as you want | How you are |
| Manager | The practical part | Capacity and health |
| Colleague | Brief | Being unwell |
| Partner's family | Light | Tiredness |
Framing it as capacity at work is not concealment. It is the form the workplace can actually act on, which is what you need from it.
Asking for something specific
General statements are hard for anyone to respond to, in any language. A concrete request converts a difficult conversation into a practical one and gives the other person something they can do.
This is doubly useful in a second language, because a specific request is a shorter sentence than an explanation of how you feel.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 少し仕事を減らしていただけませんか。 | Sukoshi shigoto o herashite itadakemasen ka. | Could you reduce my workload a little? |
| 何日か休みをいただきたいです。 | Nannichi ka yasumi o itadakitai desu. | I would like to take a few days off. |
| 病院に行きたいので、早退してもいいですか。 | Byōin ni ikitai node, sōtai shite mo ii desu ka. | May I leave early to go to the hospital? |
| 相談できる人を紹介してもらえますか。 | Sōdan dekiru hito o shōkai shite moraemasu ka. | Could you refer me to someone I can talk to? |
| ちょっと話を聞いてもらえますか。 | Chotto hanashi o kiite moraemasu ka. | Could you listen for a moment? |
| 今は答えられません。少し時間をください。 | Ima wa kotaeraremasen. Sukoshi jikan o kudasai. | I cannot answer now. Please give me some time. |
At the doctor, where detail matters
This is the one setting where precision is worth the effort, because a diagnosis depends on it. Duration, frequency and severity are the three things you will be asked, and they are worth preparing before you go.
Write it down beforehand. Composing this vocabulary in a waiting room, unwell, is exactly the situation this guide is trying to prevent.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 二か月ぐらい前からです。 | Nikagetsu gurai mae kara desu. | It has been about two months. |
| 毎晩、何度も目が覚めます。 | Maiban, nando mo me ga samemasu. | I wake up several times every night. |
| だんだんひどくなっています。 | Dandan hidoku natte imasu. | It has been getting gradually worse. |
| 仕事に行くのがつらいです。 | Shigoto ni iku no ga tsurai desu. | Going to work is hard for me. |
| 前にも同じことがありました。 | Mae ni mo onaji koto ga arimashita. | The same thing happened before. |
| 薬は飲んでいません。 | Kusuri wa nonde imasen. | I am not taking any medication. |
Bring it written down and hand it over if speaking is difficult. Nobody objects, and it is far more reliable than composing under stress.
Preparing while you are well
The whole argument of this guide is that this is preparation, not study. The words are needed rarely, at short notice, and in circumstances where building sentences from grammar is not realistic.
Rehearsing it aloud once is what makes it available. Practising a difficult conversation with your AI Sensei in Unihongo's immersive 3D classroom is a low-cost way to do that: nothing is at stake, you can stop, and you can repeat the same conversation until the sentences come without effort. Saving the words you could not find as flashcards means they are still there months later, which is when they will matter.
If you are struggling now, a doctor is the right first step and does not require perfect Japanese. Many municipalities also run consultation services for residents, some with support in other languages, and a written note is an entirely acceptable way to begin.
Needing help in a second language is harder than needing it in your first, and preparing the words in advance removes one of the obstacles at a point where you can afford to.