This is my difficulty with J as well.

APL has a better mental "feeling" for me, more like mathematical symbols. Oftentimes, these are pretty direct.

Want to drop the first element of a vector?

APL: 1 ↓ 1 2 3 4 5

J: 1 }. 1 2 3 4 5

The APL version looks like a drop to me. The J version looks like two characters that I have to remember the meaning of.

I'm sure if I was deeply proficient at J, the two-characters would stand out by their meaning, but it's hard for me to get that far when APL is so much cleaner for me to read.