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Much of Susanna Zaraysky’s life has been defined by two things: Her vision problems and her ease at picking up new languages.

Her eyesight was an issue from the beginning.

Zaraysky was born in Leningrad and diagnosed with such severe strabismus (crossed eyes) that at the age of two she was placed in a school for developmentally disabled children. Her parents, both engineers, immigrated to the United States with their two daughters in search of better jobs and by 1985 they were living in San Jose, California.

Zaraysky, then 9 and in fifth grade, had a wandering eye and astigmatism and wore round, thick, Coke-bottle glasses. “All the kids made fun of me,” she says. When her parents were between jobs and she needed new glasses, they asked her school, Eisenhower Elementary, for help and Zaraysky received a voucher from her local Lions club for a new pair of glasses with an updated prescription. “It was so important that I got them,” she says.

Zaraysky’s father was not fluent in English and as a child she was often asked to serve as their interpreter. She picked up languages quickly, capable of copying accents well enough to sound like a native speaker. “I felt like the unwilling guide in the Tower of Babel,” she says. “I found myself interpreting for others and often being the only person who could understand almost everybody.”

As a teen she had surgery to correct her wandering eye and traded in her glasses for contacts. She graduated from college, worked and traveled. Along the way, Zaraysky became fluent in seven languages, never fully understanding why languages came so easily to her. Then at the age of 29 she discovered the answer. Zaraysky realized that could only see in 2D not 3D, and her limited vision made her hearing very sensitive. That sensitivity, coupled with the realization that she heard language as music not as words, was the source of her talent. “It’s as though my ears are the third dimension that I don’t have with my vision,” explains Zaraysky.

She has made peace with her imperfect vision and no longer sees it as a disability. Just recently she wrote and published a book, Language is Music (Kaleidomundi, 2009) , in which she offers advice on learning foreign languages. “I have this ability to listen and to communicate that most people don’t have,” Zaraysky says. “It’s as though I’ve turned lemons into lemonade.”

The Lions Club has a huge eyeglass recycling program, collecting more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses annually and distributing them to more than 3 million people in developing nations. Donating your old or unused glasses provides life-changing vision services for needy people all around the world. You can make a difference in the life of a vision-impaired person. Donate your glasses today!