kazuichikun wrote:

which seiko model do you use?

mine is the T5000 model.

totally agreed with what darkflame21 had mentioned about the electronic dictionary catering to japanese people and the need to know basic japanese. take your own time to decide which model suits you the best ie your learning needs etc. As i mentioned earlier, best to have 'jump' function.... for SEIKO models, the JUMP' function alllows you to look up every word that is on the screen....i didnt choose sharp because the models they have here are not that impressive in terms of functions..... and the prices are actually comparable to SEIKO models which are much better....they might offer better models in your country so do look around more before you buy........

kazuichikun wrote:

it sure beats carrying around a kanji dictionary to do work...

that's what i used to do, there's nothing wrong with that.

actually, i was looking at the canon word tank G-50 model. it is kind of pricy though. when i compare seiko, casio, sharp, etc...the dictionary all appear to be the same. so, i am actually not sure which to buy. its just that the canon seems to be more friendly towards the english user.

hmm japanese dictionaries...

I was sorely tempted to buy a electronic dictionary until i realized that it would just be another example of me spending money to make myself feel better about not studying enough....

1st - i believe there is only 1 dictionary specifically designed for english speaking students of japanese. its is the RM2000. You can't buy them at many stores in japan, but they're available in akihabara and den-den town. I think they sell at at kinukuniya in the US too... But this is a fairly low level (i.e. doesn't use kanji) dictionary.

If you buy an expensive one, make sure it has an english instruction manual!! Some do, but i think many dont.

As a alternative, you can buy a palm pilot for about the same price, and put japanese software on it. this is probably a much more flexible solution. having a pen might also might help for kanji input (but im not sure) I have a pen tablet for my pc, and its great. i see a kanji I don't know, and i just draw it on the pc, and the software automatically looks it up for me. very very fast and conveneient.

I'm thinking of getting the G50 also, but it's too much $$ for me right now...

The other thing I would like to try is a PocketPC and the free JWPce software. JWPce's j/e dictionary & kanji lookup has worked great so far on my regular Windows computer.

BTW, here's some screen shots, etc. of some electionic dictionaries:

http://www.wordtankcentral.com/examples.php

DRosen wrote:

I have a pen tablet for my pc, and its great. i see a kanji I don't know, and i just draw it on the pc, and the software automatically looks it up for me. very very fast and conveneient.

That sounds interesting... What software do you use? Will a mouse do?

DRosen wrote:

As a alternative, you can buy a palm pilot for about the same price, and put japanese software on it. this is probably a much more flexible solution. having a pen might also might help for kanji input (but im not sure) I have a pen tablet for my pc, and its great. i see a kanji I don't know, and i just draw it on the pc, and the software automatically looks it up for me. very very fast and conveneient.

That's so cool! It beats looking it up by radicals, LOL.

Quote:

What software do you use? Will a mouse do?

yep, mouse is fine, but less natural. You can use either Japanese windows or the regular japanese IME + a kanji dictionary. (I use AROHA). drawing the character is actually just a part of the IME. in the expanded IME window go to IME Pad (the 4th option) and then write by hand (the first option). draw your character and then paste or input it into aroha (or other dictionary). your done. I know it sounds complicated, but after a few times you get used to it and its sooooo much faster than radicals or SKIP or whatever.

I had to troubleshoot a japanese router once, and this method really saved my ass...

If i could do this on a palm pilot, i'd be in heaven.

Ah! I've seen that before, but forgot about it. I just found AROHA via google as well and will give that a try. Thanks!

I bought an Ex-Word 470 (Casio) many Years ago for Y 15000. It still is my favourite Toy. It lets you draw Kanji on it's screen and then look them up. Very helpful indeed. Need to now a bit about stroke order though, to really enjoy this thingy.

RL21 wrote:

I bought an Ex-Word 470 (Casio) many Years ago for Y 15000. It still is my favourite Toy. It lets you draw Kanji on it's screen and then look them up. Very helpful indeed. Need to now a bit about stroke order though, to really enjoy this thingy.

i hear that those dictionaries that allow you to draw radicals aren't that good? ...apparently, you have to write the radical really fast or it wont pick it up? ....

kazuichikun wrote:

i hear that those dictionaries that allow you to draw radicals aren't that good? ...apparently, you have to write the radical really fast or it wont pick it up? ....

Well, considering that they're made for Japanese consumers, it's not that they're too fast, it's just that most Japanese that are looking up a kanji can write it, they just don't know the reading for it.

I suggest that you pick up a dictionary that allows you to look up ����(radicals - �l�΁A�O���A����etc...) by the amount of strokes in them.

Hope this helps,

������

kokuou wrote:

Well, considering that they're made for Japanese consumers, it's not that they're too fast, it's just that most Japanese that are looking up a kanji can write it, they just don't know the reading for it. I suggest that you pick up a dictionary that allows you to look up ����(radicals - �l�΁A�O���A����etc...) by the amount of strokes in them. Hope this helps, ������

hmm yea, thats true....a lot of the electronic dictionaries on the market now that have the feature where u can write the kanji directly on seem to be lacking in other things like the breadth of dictionary. i dont know, at the moment im sort of shooting for the canon word tank

kazuichikun wrote:

i hear that those dictionaries that allow you to draw radicals aren't that good? ...apparently, you have to write the radical really fast or it wont pick it up? ....

The XD 470 lets you write really slow. I don't know about others, but i think they can be adjusted to any writing-speed.

I have a Canon IDF3000 and before that I was using JWPce on PocketPC as my denshi jisho. The IDF3000 is pretty good... Having a keyboard, its much faster to look up words (versus using an on-screen keyboard with a pocket pc) and the example sentances really help with learning new words. I still find myself going back to JWPce once in a while to use its more advanced Kanji look methods (ie. SKIP) and to lookup words I can't find in the Canon's J-E dictionary but overall its a good general purpose dictionary.
Still... I lust after greatness that is the Canon G50 - especially the Kenkyusha 5th edition J-E dictionary which it has.

Have you visited this site? It has review and recommendation for several model denshi jisho http://www.bornplaydie.com/japan/dictionary/dictionary.htm

For english speaker, personally I'll like to recommend Canon Wordtank G-50 ( http://cweb.canon.jp/wordtank/language/g50/index.html ), since it has really good english interface. Official price on web site is ��40,000. But I got mine just for ��25,800 from amazon.co.jp ( http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DYZA5/qid=1095963522/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/249-8690053-3817931 ).

This denshi jisho is really good, specially if you're interested on kanji. I think so far it is the only denshi jisho that can animate the drawing of the kanji displaying not only the stroke order, but also the direction of the strokes. Kanji lookup feature also very easy, you can lookup kanji not only by radical, but by any part of the kanji. For example you're looking for kanji �� (fumu = to step), you can type �������݂����Ё@(��ashi, ��mizu, ��hi are parts of the kanji), and the kanji will be displayed. Another lookup method are by on/kun reading, radical, name (some kanji has special reading when it used as person name), and number of stroke, or you can combine all of lookup method together.

why not try this?

http://padict.sourceforge.net/v0.3.0/index.php

I'm going to be in the market soon for a PDA since I'm going to need a dictionary for my Japanese class next semester. But it looks like I'm going to have to go with a Palm to use that PAdict program. Anyone know of a good program that has writing recognition software for PocketPC? JWPce would be my first choice if it had the recognition software.

maybe these threads/ sites will be of interest:

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9735

http://www.geocities.com/andrew_brault/dokusha/

http://store.aikotradingstore.com/newcaexxd.html

If you can afford to burn 400 dollars, I'd recommend the
Canon Wordtank V80. It has a stylus that allows you to
input Kanji by writing them.

You can buy it here:
http://www.smartimports.net/proddetail.php?prod=V80&PHPSESSID=5a4bb36b1ad67b2ac999d88b155be06d

Here's a link to a review:
http://www.quinlanfaris.com/archives/000080.html

I have a Sony translator and its pretty useless when going from English to Japanese. Its made for a Japanese speaker and its pretty difficult to use. Alll the other ones I looked at online seem to be pretty much the same thing.

However I found this incredible program for people with PDAs. http://padict.sf.net

Its made for english speakers, look up in English or in Japanese. Plus it allows you to draw kanji or look up kanji by radical. The kanji dictionary is complete and a lot of the kanji have stroke order diagrams.

The only problems so far is the english-japanese dictionary isn't complete yet and you need to be pretty good at stroke order for drawing kanji. But its WORLDS better than a lot of those dictionaries simply because its made for english speakers.