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Show notes
In August 2016, I moved to a small town on the Japanese island of Shikoku. I had almost no Japanese ability and I didn't have an expectation that I'd stay very long in Japan. Maybe I'd stay in Japan for one year. 10 years later, though, I'm still in Japan. I'm now married. I have a daughter. I run a business from Japan. And I can live my entire life in Japanese if I need to. Looking back, there are things that I'm incredibly proud of in my Japanese learning journey and a few things that I wish I had done differently. So in today's episode of Thinking in English, I thought it would be interesting to discuss my past 10 years of language learning experiences: how I went from zero knowledge of Japanese to being able to live in Japanese daily if I \[00:01:00\] need to. Hopefully by listening to this episode, you guys will receive some motivation and some advice about your own language learning journeys. **Conversation Club -** **TRANSCRIPT -** [](https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2026/07/13/396-10-years-language-learning-lessons-id-give-my-younger-self-english-vocabulary-lesson/) **AD Free Episode** \- **Patreon** \- **YouTube Channel** \- **INSTAGRAM** \- ) **$10 Free Credits on iTalki (Affiliate Link) -** [](https://www.italki.com/affshare?ref=af17506448) **My Editing Software (50 % Discount Affiliate Link)** \- Borough by Blue Dot Sessions Contact [advertising@airwavemedia.com](mailto:advertising@airwavemedia.com) to advertise on Thinking in English. Thinking in English is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit [megaphone.fm/adchoices](https://megaphone.fm/adchoices)