They tell me I’m closer to having Broca’s aphasia. Of course, I still don’t fully understand it. But since my wife says so, I figure it must be true. At first, I couldn’t grasp what this term, ‘Broca’s aphasia,’ meant. My main thought was, ‘What good will understanding it do? I just want to study hard and get this over with quickly.’ I vaguely thought that with a little more effort, I’d soon be able to start working again, and even restart my career at the company from scratch. To be honest, I didn’t have much interest in what my diagnosis was. In fact, every time I tried to be interested, I’d forget it, so I think I just got angry and decided to lose interest altogether.
But now, little by little, I’m starting to care. Since it’s my injury, I find myself thinking about why I got hurt, whether I can truly get better, and how I should prepare.
I didn’t know what “Broca’s aphasia” meant at first either. I dismissed it as just another English name, but the Korean term “실어증” (sil-eojjeung, meaning aphasia or “lost symptom”) felt even more comical. ‘Is it a lost symptom? What have I lost? Does that mean I did something wrong? Or since it’s lost, can I find it again?’ These kinds of thoughts swirled in my head. I couldn’t properly understand the word itself. So, I wanted to learn more about Broca’s aphasia.
Broca’s aphasia is a language disorder resulting from damage to the Broca’s area of the brain. This area is primarily responsible for expressive language skills, such as speaking and writing. Therefore, individuals with Broca’s aphasia generally have no significant problems understanding language, but they struggle to express their thoughts through speech or writing. It’s difficult for them to find words or form sentences, their pronunciation can become inaccurate, and grammatical errors often occur. It’s like knowing everything in their mind but feeling the frustration of not being able to articulate it verbally or put it into writing. Since many of these symptoms are similar to what I’m experiencing, it feels like I’m finally starting to understand my condition little by little. I need to accept this fact and work even harder towards my recovery.