Electronic dictionary -where to buy it?

[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by Hatredcopter

Most electronic dictionaries are meant for Japanese people, but there are ones that are suitable for intermediate learners of Japanese as well. I'm a big fan of the Canon WordTank G55 - it comes with an english manual and the interface on it can be switched to English as well, making it good for English-speakers who are learning Japanese. I'm not sure if I would recommend it to beginners, however.

They usually run from $230-$260 or so. You can order it online (just search google for retailers) or you can pick it up in Japan.

We were discussing various translator/dictionaries last night and several people recommended buying the Chinese versions by Canon and then purchasing the Japanese chip for it. Apparently the Canon's Chinese units have more features and may even be more available (cheaper?). And I noticed one of the people in the discussion was using some model of the WordTank.

[Matteinokun]

I think Casio Ex-word is pretty good dictionary! one of my girlfriends bought me one about 2 mounths ago

[NTREEG]

I bought the Casio Ex-word XD-GP9700 from Max and Tomoko of White Rabbit Press. I bought it in Japan, but they ship to the United States. I also bought Casio's Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary CD-ROM to add an additional dictionary to it. The combination is pretty excellent. I use the dictionary everyday in class and I take it with me everywhere I go. You can write in any unfamiliar kanji you want to look up with the pen stylus. And this model is fairly forgiving if you use incorrect stroke order.

If you do purchase an Ex-word model, I highly recommend the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary add-on for the simple fact that when you look up a word in English, most of the time you're going to get some Kanji back instead of all hiragana. But if you have the Kanji Learner's Dictionary installed, you can highlight, jump, and lookup the readings of any Kanji you don't recognize in the definition.

[filiadragongurl]

I agree with whoever said the DS! I bought a DS in Japan and got the Genius Japanese/English dictionary for it. I had been told by a tech saavy and Japanese saavy friend that it was the best electronic dictionary on the market. This was about 1 1/2 ago and it's technically made for Japanese students to learn English rather than the other way around... but I think it's really great for low-intermediate to advanced students! You can write in the kanji so you don't even have to know how to pronounce it to look things up! Or you can write in hiragana and find the kanji for it too.

Good luck finding something right for you^_^

[PouncingAnt]

I've heard the DS is a bit slow. I guess its OK if you're not in a hurry. I use a Sharp Papyrus, it works well, no problems.

I want to butt in mainly to make a point towards freeware.
It is perfectly possible to get a palmtop or a dictionary sized laptop (I'm not sure what they're called but I saw some in Bic Camera last time I went, each running windows XP or Vista) They're a bit more expensive, but have lots of advantages:
1)It would be childsplay to install a free dictionary onto such a device (there are even websites with instructions on how to do this). And since most of those devices have pointing devices you also get to write the kanji in, just like the good Denshi-Jisho's.
2)You have the ability to use an English operating system, so no previous experience in Japanese would be necessary.
3)The best thing is that you basically end up with Jim Breen's dictionary on your palmtop(/other mini computer) and all of the scientific/literature/name dictionaries you'd ever need.
4)All the features of a tiny computer (who needs those brain-training programs anyway )

Hope I don't sounds too much like a electronics sales rep. I'm biased somewhat by the need of a good scientific dictionary