I tried looking up on this topic as much as I could before making this post, but neither the forums, FAQ nor the blog has the answers I am looking for.
So my question is, what is being planned for WaniKani? What can we expect to see in the next 1-3 years?
The only upcoming changes in the study content that I can see are small fixes such as typo corrections, and new context sentences to all vocabulary items. The latter is a great welcome and requires a lot of work, but as there are no indications of any other changes, it seems like WaniKani is considered ācompleteā after the context sentences and small fixes are in place. Surely the team has planned something for the future?
I think they are planning to open a fishing venue in Manhattanā¦
Seriously though, what more do you want? As far as I am concerned, it is pretty awesome as is. If they choose to do anything more, that would be awesome too, but, when someone gives you an amazing cake, it is a lot more normal to say thanks a ton then to say āGreat, but is there going to be any ice cream or soda?ā
My intention is not to be mean, but it kind of frustrates me, when I think of how much I like wanikani and how much it has helped me in learning Japanese, to hear people say ābut what else is it going to do for me?ā It has managed to teach you 2027 Japanese characters and 6000+ words in like a year or two or maybe a bit more if you are taking your time. It has also given you a ton of context sentences, and a great community with a bunch of people to look for advice on learning Japanese. And it has given you the Crabbigator.
Anyway, sorry for the sermon, but I figured this once I would answer this type of question sincerely and then keep my grumblings to myself.
Thatās not what I took from it. If they meant the next project, wouldnāt that be āWhatās next for Tofugu?ā WK isnāt going to start a new project, itās a project itself.
If its whats next for WK it seems like its the radicals and mnemonics overhaul. After that, itās always possible they will add more kanji/vocab I guess, I personally would like it see that since there are some important kanji (imo) that are not on wanikani.
If itās whats next for Tofugu Iām sure they have lots of stuff going on, but the big one is Etoeto, which is in closed beta, and is still very far off.
I would hardly call EtoEto even closed beta at this stage. They havenāt pushed out an update since August and hadnāt done anything real significant for months before that. At this stage it just kind of exists. I hope they have managed to figure out the direction they are now wanting to take it and have been working hard on that but they havenāt exactly kept us up to date on that.
Well Kuma is functional, and pretty good, but thatās last and most advanced section. Koichi mentioned on reddit they have a working prototype and hope have more information soon about the other stuff.
How much the prototype covers, and how near to completion it actually isā¦who knows. Tofugu takes soon^tm to the next level.
That section is basically just Satori Reader but not as good. It shows promise and based on how that was all they updated for a year, I assume they realize that too. So Iām really hoping that prototype has greatly expanded the functionality of that section.
I completely disagree with this way of looking at things.
There is nothing wrong with OPās question. Businesses innovate all the time, and asking what is next in the roadmap is not an ungrateful question, itās just curiosity. I too have wondered this a lot. Maybe itāll be new features, maybe itāll be more levels, maybe itāll be something unexpected, maybe itāll be nothing.
As far as I know, the radicals overhaul and the new API are the ones that have been announced and I am looking forward to an interesting future. Iām the sort of person who divests from products that donāt evolve because I get bored easily, and Iām thrilled that WK is not one of those.
I donāt know for the future of wanikani but I could really use a Portal to log into and get acces to the different āTofugu sitesā. Like some kind of all-in-one platform.
And I do agree with the OP about wanting something more, because as stated before, there are still important kanji not covered by WK (like some of N1 kanji) and the site/app could grow better.
So I have to disagree with @patjennings24ās idea of ācake is more than enoughā, 'cuz do you really want just that? You said you really like WK and how it works, but you would rather learn grammar and the rest of kanji and vocab and whatever somewhere else because what they offered you is amazing but you donāt want them to evolve and do better?
I know Iām really looking forward to EtoEto and any update WK comes up with, because I do agree the site is great but it is not perfect yet.
I just want the ability to add my own kanji and vocabulary to WaniKani. Fineā¦ Kanji might be asking for too much but at least vocabulary.
Just tag every āuser-createdā item differently so it doesnāt get mixed up, but totally seems like something that should easily work within the existing infra. Oh well, I know Iām far from the first person to ask for this.
I love the WK platform, and it pains me to also have to open Anki for all the other random words I pick up.
