Thinking About Becoming a Founding Member? This Is the Moment

What you get as a Founding Member, why the price is changing, and why May 20 is the last day to join at $180/year.

Dear readers,

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming change to Founding Membership.

On May 20, in one week, I’ll be increasing the price of Founding Membership from $180/year to $250/year.

I don’t want to make this change silently, so I’d like to explain why the price is changing, what Founding Membership includes, and what this means if you’ve been considering joining.

Why the price is changing

I created this tier when this publication was much smaller, and I wanted to make it as accessible as possible. But over time, Founding Membership has become much more personal, detailed, and high-touch than I originally imagined.

Founding Members receive everything included in the paid tier: the full paid archive, deep-dive articles, downloadable PDFs, learning systems, frameworks, and future paid resources.

But they also receive the most personal layer of my work here - a fully personalized custom language learning plan designed around their target language, current level, goals, weekly schedule, learning history, challenges, personality, and real life.

These are not short checklists or generic templates.

The plans I create for Founding Members are usually 60–100-page documents that include a complete learning system, a realistic weekly structure, skill-by-skill priorities, tracking tools, resources, and the most extensive set of strategies I can design for your particular goals, level, language, schedule, and challenges.

As you can imagine, they require many hours of deep work: reading, thinking, researching, structuring, designing a realistic system, writing the plan, and ensuring it is clear enough to use on both high-energy days, when life cooperates, and the wind is at your back, and low-energy days, when motivation is harder to find.

Founding Members also receive priority DM access to me, so they can ask questions, clarify their plan, and receive more direct support as they apply it.

I love creating these plans. They are probably the most personal and meaningful work I do here. They allow me to bring together my experience as a linguist, language teacher, polyglot, and lifelong learner, and turn the science of language learning into something specific, practical, and usable for one real person.

Every reader means the world to me

At the same time, I want to say that I care deeply about EVERY reader here.

Those of you who have been here from the start already know that the free posts are not superficial leftovers. They are the foundation of this publication, with the theory, core principles, and selected strategies that help you understand how effective language learning actually works.

I put serious thought, research, and care into them because I know many readers are not in a position to pay, and I still want this publication to be extremely useful. I want a free subscriber to read an article here and leave with something practical, encouraging, and intellectually stimulating.

The paid posts also take a great deal of work because they are not just essays or extra articles. They are complete implementation systems: detailed planners, checklists, study frameworks, downloadable resources, AI prompts, examples, templates, and step-by-step guides designed to help people actually apply what they learn in real life.

My goal is not simply to put extra content behind a paywall, but to build a comprehensive library for people who want a more complete language-learning system.

This change does not affect free subscribers or regular paid members.

I will continue creating serious, well-researched work for every reader here.

The price change applies only to Founding Membership because this tier includes highly personal work (custom plans, priority DM access, and many hours of focused attention).

That is where I move from writing for many readers to designing something for one specific learner.

It requires a different kind of attention. I carefully read each learner’s welcome booklet, which details their life, learning history, goals, and challenges. Then I think through their goals and constraints and create a plan that fits their actual life rather than an idealized routine.

I’m building all of this with real care alongside a full-time teaching job and two small children, so I have to protect the kind of deep, focused work this tier requires.

Raising the price is not about making this less accessible for its own sake. It is about ensuring I can continue to give each layer of this publication the attention it deserves.

How to lock in the current price

The current price of $180/year will remain available one more week, until May 20.

If you join before May 20, your $180/year price will be locked in for as long as your subscription remains active.

The new price will apply only to new Founding Members who join after the change.

After May 20, 2026, Founding Membership will increase to $250/year.

If you are already a paid member and decide to upgrade, you will not be charged twice. Substack automatically adjusts the difference based on what you have already paid.

Please note that upgrades need to be made through a web browser, preferably on a laptop or desktop. Substack does not allow subscription upgrades through the app, even if you can see the upgrade option there.

What Founding Members have said

Several Founding Members have already shared very generous public feedback about their experience.

Michael W. wrote on LinkedIn:

“Viktoria Verde poured a lot of time, knowledge, and compassion into creating a detailed and highly personalized Mandarin learning plan for me that perfectly fits my personality, goals, prior language acquisition experiences, and time constraints.

As a linguist, language teacher, and polyglot, she brings together scientific rigor, pedagogical excellence, and her own second language acquisition experience to help her students find their perfect path to learn a foreign language.

I highly recommend her to help anybody with second language acquisition.”

Maximus Skepticus has written several public updates about his experience with my personalized learning program as a Founding Member. His reflections mean a lot to me because they show that this tier is a serious attempt to help one learner build a language-learning system that makes sense.

You can read them here:

If You've Ever Struggled to Acquire a New Language, Your Anguish is Over

UPDATE: If You’ve Ever Struggled to Acquire a New Language, Your Anguish is Over. Part Deux.

FINAL UPDATE If You’ve Ever Struggled to Acquire a New Language, Your Anguish is Over. Part Trois.

If Founding Membership has been on your mind

If you’ve been considering becoming a Founding Member and would like a personalized language learning plan at the current price, this is the best time to upgrade.

After May 20, the price will be $250/year.

And if you’re already a Founding Member, thank you!

Your support allows me to keep building this publication with depth, care, and real attention to every learner.

Warmly,
Viktoria