I really like that they, and some of the other big paid ones, offer lifetime. I haven't tried it, but I'm at least curious.
Looks like you're learning Japanese, so rest assured there are a ton of resources out there to choose from. Sometimes the hard part is narrowing it down.
I'm always surprised how chill it is here. The exact opposite of Place, as far as I remember. I threw this out there and drew the outline. Filled in a couple inside pixels, but then fun and helpful strangers carried it all the way through to completion. And it survived to the end even. Nice!
It's so frustrating how every subscription service will do this.
They'll provide some good value for a while. Then after a decent number of people are hooked, it's upsell upsell upsell. Props for cancelling and not just being OK with that!
What are you learning with instead now?
Just gonna go ahead and post this template here for myself to reference later: https://canvas.fediverse.events/#tu=https%3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Flogopedia%2Fimages%2Fa%2Fa8%2FNintendo_GameCube_logo.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20160614112552&tw=192&tx=288&ty=142&ts=ONE_TO_ONE&x=384&y=238&zoom=1
Fun fact: the Gamecube is cool. :)
That sounds great! I'd love to get there - the idea of replacing most of my English language reading-for-enjoyment with Japanese is so appealing.
But for now I'm still in graded readers mostly. While they are fun, they're maybe not stuff I'd be excited about reading without the language learning aspect.
In Spanish I did go through a short horror story collection for grade school kids. Really hit the sweet spot of interesting, challenging, and intelligible. When that happens it's so satisfying.
A couple interesting bits:
I'd agree, they're getting too long. And it's not just TV shows, it seems like big movies and games are also too long too often.
It's like every major work thinks it's the be-all culmination of human creativity. For the people who work on it, it may have that place of importance. But as a viewer, any given work is, by default, just yet another in a huge sea of art that might occupy my time.
But also, I get it. When you find something you really resonate with, that you devour each second of, sometimes it can feel like the longer the better. You almost don't want it to end. And if you pay money for something, and it's surprisingly short, that can feel disappointing.
That makes sense! I am a rule enjoyer, I guess I was responding more to the thread than to you in particular. It is good to be aware of the rules, but I also think they can sometimes hinder natural communication and create confusion.
Impact, impacted, impacts are totally fine for these use cases. As a native English speaker, I'd never heard of these rules against using them that way.
But even if there is a rule, it doesn't matter; if the terms are used this way and fully understood by both the speaker and listeners, then the rule is void.
I've been using an open-source app called Eqonomize!. Before that I was doing something similar, but with spreadsheets.
Kanji first sounds pretty good to me. You didn't feel like it worked well?
I went through Genki I with Kanji mostly sidelined, and I felt like I wished I'd known Kanji better first. Having to look up how to write every character is a drag, and I don't think using kana is a much better alternative.
You say you could read but not understand... I feel like that's a step up from the reverse! (That being, "I'd totally understand thus if I could read it") And I find that learning Kanji now is making it way faster to remember vocab.
I guess the lesson is just that it's all important, skipping or putting off any of it doesn't work so well.
When I'm frustrated with immersion, I try to shift my focus from understand-most-of-it to pick-out-something I do understand. From that perspective, I do OK, recognizing some common word pretty often. It's not much, but I'll take any small win I can get. On the flip side, maybe pick out certain words that give you trouble and focus on why.
Also, try going back to easier/repeat material. Going back a few chapters in the book or rewatching beginner videos or rereading level 0 graded readers until you've practically memorized them. I tend to find some material I can look at and say 'this used to be hard, I am making some progress at least!'
Motivation is just hard though, good luck!
As someone who's started and stopped a bunch, I'd say remember the cliche: "The best time to do it was 10 years ago. The second best time is now." Don't let any setbacks distract you from making progress. That effort now opens up future possibilities.