So I'm an Engilsh teacher in Japan. Everyday I get in a car with my Japanese assistant and she drives me to a different Kindergarten for me to teach English at. While we are in the car we talk. Every week she is worried about her daughter. Her daughter is doing great in English but is failing almost all of her other classes. She sends her to cram school but it doesn't help. She finally figures out that her daughter is a very slow reader and isn't able to finish her tests. She figures it is because her daughter only reads Cell-phone stories that don't use the Kanji that she will see on tests. So she want's her to read more traditional books to help speed up her reading. Of course these books are of no interest to her daughter and she does not read them. One day I'm in the car (with mobile WiFi) and start using Skritter. My assistant notices what a great program it is and was interested in getting something like it for her daughter. However she was interested in using it without the English. I figure it would be possible for the Skritter team to make a version of Skritter that had a Japanese menu and only tested "readings to Kanji" and "Kanji to readings". Do you think there is a market for Skritter with native Japanese and Chinese Learners?

Yes

There could be a huge market, but we aren't able to really pursue it. We would need to do a lot of work, not only localizing the interface, translating the definitions, and opening marketing channels in China and Japan, but also reworking things to be more kid-friendly and more in line with the needs of those customers. Cannot underestimate the importance of aligning one's product with one's market.

So we're not planning on chasing that any time soon. Hmm; if someone else wanted to, I wonder if we could license out the tech. Additionally, making a separate iPhone/iPad app for it might not be as difficult as making a new website--but no! Focus!

If her English is good, couldn't she use Skritter with English as the source language?

I'm a native Japanese speaker who's learning Chinese. I signed up in order to practice Chinese characters and I was going to recap Japanese Kanji with Skritter too while I'm at it, although I haven't been too ambitious. But I think it's definitely useful for natives, too.

"If her English is good, couldn't she use Skritter with English as the source language?"

She could, but she probably won't. Most people are lazy. We had a German a while back -- with better than native English ability -- complain about the lack of German definitions.

That would be great! It should teach the native Chinese how to write and along that the pinyin. For example my boyfriend doesn't know pinyin and his writing is not good. He could benefit from that kind of program.