The moment Lang-8 created the option to upgrade to a Premium Account I did it. At first, it was because I wanted to support Lang-8 (hey, they’re cool Froods!) and make sure their servers kept on running. But, the more I looked at the features the more I realized that there’s a lot of awesome potential here, especially when it comes to power users of the site (and if you’re not one, you should become one). Definitely a few new features that could really accelerate your Japanese studies, which makes it worth a deeper look.

Premium Features:

There are 6 new perks by upgrading to Premium Lang-8, and here’s what I think:

1. Journal and Correction Data Download as PDF: This is the best new feature. You can download side-by-side corrections in PDF form so you can print them out and really practice your corrections and get better. Definitely something that will increase the rate at which you learn your Japanese. I’ve already enjoyed this feature, plus it lets you take some paper around with you if you have a printer.
2. Number of Foot Print Pages: Pshh, heck yeah. I want to know who’s stalking me and check out the trends from months and months ago. Don’t lie to yourself, you know you like the foot prints feature.
3. Max Number of Corrected Sentences Allowed to Add to Notebook: Sure, you could add these on your own to a notepad or something, but the notebook makes things a lot more convenient. Getting unlimited pages here is awesome for people who really use this feature a lot.
4. Personal URL: Some will enjoy this feature more than others. I know this kind of thing makes me happy.
5. Personal Journal Search: For the hardcore Lang-8 user, this is definitely a must. Being able to search is real nice and saves time!
6. Photo Album: Not sure what this is for exactly, but I have some feeling there will be something interesting happening here at some point down the road!

All in all, the upgrade is only $5 a month, and for that mere $5 the power user will see a lot of benefit. Like any freemium model, people who don’t use the service as much probably won’t find any reason to upgrade, but I do hope you consider supporting the nice folks at Lang-8 by subscribing anyways. Native Japanese speakers + extra learning tools = “WIN” in my book.

Lang-8 Premium Giveaway (Let me pay for your first month)

In fact, I want to support Lang-8 so much that the first ten people to go premium on Lang-8 and send me the receipts for their purchase (koichi@tofugu.com) will get themselves a nice little reimbursement via Paypal. I’ll only reimburse the first month, though, so if you get yourself a year long membership (a better deal) I’ll still only send you $5.00.