The future of WaniKani

WaniKani Feedback
#1

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 “complete” after the context sentences and small fixes are in place. Surely the team has planned something for the future?

3 Likes
#2

I think they are planning to open a fishing venue in Manhattan…:wink:

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 “Great, but is there going to be any ice cream or soda?”

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 “but what else is it going to do for me?” 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.

8 Likes
#3

Kristen just confirmed yesterday that the long-promised overhaul to the radicals and mnemonics is still in the works.

1 Like
#4

I’m not sure about this, but I believe the OP is asking about the future of the team behind WK after the fixes already mentioned get solved :thinking:

Not much about WK itself, but more about “what’s the next project?”

1 Like
#5

OH SHOOT. if that is the case, sorry…I guess I misunderstood and yelled about nothing…

2 Likes
#6

Yeah, no worries. I’m not sure if what I said is the actual intention of the OP either :slight_smile:

1 Like
#7

That’s not what I took from it. If they meant the next project, wouldn’t that be “What’s next for Tofugu?” WK isn’t going to start a new project, it’s a project itself.

4 Likes
#8

Yeah, I know. It makes sense.

I said what I said to get a better clarification from the OP. Everyone can use the wrong words to express an idea :slight_smile: Just asking for verification.

1 Like
#9

i personally would like them to make chinese version of wanikani.

2 Likes
#10

So it seems like wanikani looks about the same in Chinese from a brief googling …鳄蟹:no_mouth:

Coincidence?? I think not…

#11

If its whats next for WK it seems like its the radicals and mnemonics overhaul. After that, it’s 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 it’s whats next for Tofugu I’m 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.

#12

I would hardly call EtoEto even closed beta at this stage. They haven’t pushed out an update since August and hadn’t 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 haven’t exactly kept us up to date on that.

#13

Well Kuma is functional, and pretty good, but that’s 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 is…who knows. Tofugu takes soon^tm to the next level.

1 Like
#14

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 I’m really hoping that prototype has greatly expanded the functionality of that section.

Must have been taking notes from Valve

#15

Isn’t the creator working EtoEto right now?

#16

I completely disagree with this way of looking at things.
There is nothing wrong with OP’s question. Businesses innovate all the time, and asking what is next in the roadmap is not an ungrateful question, it’s just curiosity. I too have wondered this a lot. Maybe it’ll be new features, maybe it’ll be more levels, maybe it’ll be something unexpected, maybe it’ll 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. I’m the sort of person who divests from products that don’t evolve because I get bored easily, and I’m thrilled that WK is not one of those.

3 Likes
#17

If I recall correctly, they are also working on getting to three example sentences for every level instead of just the first ten levels.

2 Likes
#18

I don’t know for the future of wanikani but I could really use a Portal to log into and get acces to the different “Tofugu sites”. Like some kind of all-in-one platform.

6 Likes
#19

Now that would be awesome.

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 @patjennings24’s idea of “cake is more than enough”, '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 don’t want them to evolve and do better?
I know I’m 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.

2 Likes
#20

I just want the ability to add my own kanji and vocabulary to WaniKani. Fine… Kanji might be asking for too much but at least vocabulary.

Just tag every “user-created” item differently so it doesn’t get mixed up, but totally seems like something that should easily work within the existing infra. Oh well, I know I’m 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.