What if I (theoretically) wanted to recreate something similar to WaniKani in my native language?

Would using the learning order of kanji/radicals infringe on WaniKani IP? I don’t mean the direct translation of anything, just the order in which kanji are studied. (pls krabigator don’t kill me)

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I don’t believe there’s anything proprietary about the order in which the kanji are taught, the IP is in the mnemonics and example sentences.

I’d drop hello@wanikani.com a line though, just as a matter of politeness and to see what they think.

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Out of interest, what is your native language?

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Russian, so most of the potential Russian speaking Japanese learners can’t really use WaniKani in English to the full extent.

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I think if they were concerned with someone taking their data and method they wouldn’t have made such a thorough API that would allow you to pretty much take their data.

Since English is the only other language I speak, WK works for me. If you can figure out ways to create mnemonics in your native tongue, you would likely be a savior to the people who speak your native tongue and want to learn Kanji!

Good luck!

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There’s kanji in Russian?

EDIT: OH WAIT nevermind you want Russian users to be able to learn Japanese kanji. I’m an idiot :joy:

Maybe you could ask them to look into localization instead? Though that’s gonna be a lot of work for them for not a whole lot of extra users tbh.

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Yeah, I don’t think they’ll want to do all that. And even if they wanted to localize something like Spanish would be a much wiser choice

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Yeah prob.
Are you going to take a similar approach as Wanikani by making your own mnemonics?
Sounds like lots of fun :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Hmm, I think the order would be novel enough to be copyright protected.

Also most of the radicals were created by WK

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Hm that’s a good point.
@Miraigajettolab could you keep us informed as to what their answer is? I’m quite interested now.

I’d say not necessarily the order of the kanji, but maybe the intertwining order between radical, kanji and vocab. But again, better to ask.

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Hmm, fair point, I’m not sure about how well copyright protection of that would hold up, should they care to protect it, which it’s my assumption they don’t - since other platforms use the WaniKani level order. I also don’t know a thing about how US copyrighting works, hehe.

OP should definitely ask regardless.

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If this is an altruistic endeavor I think it would be better to create an unofficial translation. Either as a script, or a webapp or mobile app using the WK API

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Then how about which kanji and vocab they choose to teach? Compare it to a dictionary, for example. When creating a dictionary you can’t just copy another dictionary

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Logically, one could make a localised version of WaniKani and hook in into the API. That’s basically what KameSame and KaniWani are. As you say, if it’s altruistic and they’re not seeking payment, that might be the way to go.

True enough, true enough. Ultimately comes down to whether or not it’s commercial, I guess.

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But If I, say, used similar logic when choosing my own order (somewhat adhering to jlpt levels, learning kanji that is “part” of other kanji first and learning kanji that are often used together) the result may be quite similar (or maybe it wouldn’t be who knows).

I thought about making something with more focus on grammar and vocab, not just cloning/translating WK. And really it’s just an idea, I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time/resources to actually implement it.

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Certainly, if your order was self-derived and it was merely a similar product, there’s nothing stopping you. WaniKani isn’t unique as an SRS service and didn’t develop the technique, merely the content.

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There’s no copyright on ideas, so if you don’t copy anything I guess it should be fine

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