Denshi jisho, Electronic dictionary
 

Hi,
I am planning to buy a japanese-english electronic dictionary (denshi jisho).

Does anyone here use one that they think is good?

I would be very grateful for any recommendations :)

I have a Canon G50 that I bought 5 years ago and it has served me very well. I imagine there are newer models now, but a G50 should be quite cheap since it's not a newest model anymore.

I bought an iPod Touch. You buy the Touch, you get the Japanese app for $20, and voila! You have a do-everything media player with a perfectly good denshijisho on it for less than a denshijisho alone!

I live by it.

Oh wow! I am unfamiliar with the iTouch, but I want one. I have a friend who owns one and everything he plays around with it, it makes me want the device even more. I never knew that it had applications, useful ones at that! :P

I use "Kotoba!" because it's free.
There are also lots of free Kanji dictionaries on the App Store as well.

But Kotoba! is best for it's price; free.

I used Kotoba! at first but man, drop the 20 and get Japanese. You won't regret it. I swear it's worth your while. It's got vocab lists, organizes kanji by radical, JLPT level, school level, stroke number, it shows you how to write every kanji, you can build your own vocab or kanji study lists, etc.

Also you know how to do a write-in kanji search, right? It does that, too.

Kotoba! in my experience is good for sayings or phrases.

I have a Casio Exword, but I purchased it 5 years ago in Japan for around $250 (as far as I recall).

Given that iPod Touches start are $230, $299, $399 (for the 8g, 16g, 32g versions), and that my Exword has a touch pad for Kanji writing capabilities, I'll stick with it for now ;p

My only gripe with the Exword is that it was engineered to be more of a English dictionary for the Japanese, not really the other way around. Still, its pretty handy.

The plug is that iTouches can do everything a Jisho can and can't. Internet, video, pictures, email, calendar, weather, notepad (for new words!), games, oh, and music. That's what sold me. :cool:

Though half the reason I bought it was for the jisho program. :eek:

I don't think the dictionaries offered in the iPod Touch stuff are typically as valuable, but I'm open to having my mind changed. I would just assume the very expensive, proprietary dictionaries would not be available to someone vending a $20 iPhone app.

KaiTea it's called an iPod Touch, not an iTouch. Second, have you been living under a rock? It's one of the hottest items in pretty much every developed country in the world, probably only eclipsed by its big brother, the iPhone. :)

You'd be surprised, man. There's nothing I haven't found in that dictionary. My only complaint is every now and then the more complicated kanji don't register when I draw them in, but I've seen that happen on regular denshijishos also.

I've seen crappy iPhone apps and poor excuses for language learning software, so I wouldn't really back something this strongly if I didn't think it a quality product. If you have an iPhone/Pod Touch, I recommend checking it out.

Worse comes to worst, it's one less thing in your back/pocket, right? :D

That's just it though. I already have a dictionary, and I do all my net surfing from the computer at home or at work. So I'd be spending ~$300 to gain a notepad.

Its one of the reasons why I haven't looked too hard into buying an iPhone or any other smart phone. Why spend the $100-300 up front, plus being locked into a $100*+/month contract, when I could just keep spending $10-20 a month with my current pay-as-you-go phone.

After all, all those objects that you replaced with the iPhone or iPod Touch don't just disappear from your possession just because you now own an all-in-one.

*Based upon prices for a viable package from the only carrier in Canada to carry the iPhone

They did mine. XD

My Canon has sample sentences for tons of words, and a very advanced kanji search where I can search phonetically by kanji that are parts of other kanji. Do iPhone apps have this? Just curious.

Yeah, I know. I read his comment and was like "um, Craigsist and eBay?"

Basically, no, at least not yet. Japanese does have lists of proverb, counters etc. not present in Kotoba but neither have example sentences when you find a word. The yet to be released version 2.0 of Japanese does promise example sentences, multi-radical search and flashcards though. I do find Japanese to have a cleaner interface and more importantly, to be quicker than Kotoba to find words as the list compounds appears live as you enter the kanji characters. It's worth the price in my opinion (I think there is a discount for it now, and people with version 1.0 will get a free update to version 2.0).

The dictionary for both are based on WWWJDIC as far as I can tell, which is in my opinion, handy at least up to my level (okay, that doesn't say much but anyway), as long as you know the reading of the kanji you are looking up. The problem I have with the iPhone, is that character recognition does not work nearly as well as the IME pad (nothing I've tried does though - not even dedicated denshi jishou). It's a shame, because it's technically easier to draw kanji on the iPhone than with a mouse.

At some point, a learner will probably want a 'real' Denshi Jishou. I wouldn't buy an iPod Touch/iPhone (mine's PAYG) *just* for those applications, but it's good to have if you already have one. Another nice thing with those devices is that you can also install Spaced Repetition software which is handy when you are learning on the go.

That is my point exactly. A 電子辞書 is going to be a lot better for a student of Japanese than an iPhone app assuming the student is actually serious about learning the language to a high level. My Canon has everything except handwriting recognition (others available 5 years ago had this, but I didn't need it since I could look up kanji fast enough without it just fine). I can't find my specific model on eBay, but a newer model is $230 on a non-discount site. Canon Wordtank G55 That's as cheap as an iPod Touch and cheaper than an iPhone+plan.

Well hey now, I'm moving in on a higher level and I don't own a denshijisho. I use my iPod app and the Japanese dictionary built into my Mac (It's fantastic), as well as Rikaichan for anything else.

But above all: It's a crutch.

does anybody have the WordPod GT-5200?
 

As somebody who just started learning Japanese, I wanted to throw this question out there.

A few of you mentioned Canon G50 and Casio Ex-word. I visited Bic Camera shop and a few local retailers and notice electronic dictionaries in Japan are geared for Japanese to learn English, not the other way around.

For those with electronic dictionaries, I'd love your feedback.

So instead of having a single item (denshi jisho), you're using three, and one is worthless without an internet connection?

I'll stick with my denshi jisho. :)

Pretty much all are as you described. Obviously a store in Japan isn't going to make many products intended for students of Japanese when it's such a nonexistent market there.

There was one dictionary that had just come out when I was there that was specifically made for students of Japanese, but I can't remember what it was. However, while my G50 was made for Japanese learning English, I think this is a misleading characterization. It has a huge JP->JP dictionary and kanji dictionary (both of which are tremendously useful for an advanced learner who doesn't want a single-word English translation, but a more nuanced explanation of words), and the JP->EN and EN->JP are not lacking.

My dictionary is almost as useful, IMO, as SpaceALC. SpaceALC just (obviously) has a larger number of sample sentences.

I bought my iPhone before I started Japanese. It wasn't bought *for* Japanese. However, it has contributed to my studying, which is a very nice bonus. Dictionary aside, you can also install various Space Repetition Software. While I would not bring my 電子辞書 (yes, I have one) everywhere, I keep my phone with me at all time. So while I am commuting, I can (do) practice my listening or kanji reading. And I'll be honest, even when I need to lookup the meaning of a single word I've heard quickly, the phone is often quicker.

Does a $230 standalone electronic dictionary do more than an iPhone/iPod Touch application at less than 1/11th the cost? Of course it does. If you do not value the other features offered by those devices, than buying to use it as a 電子辞書 make no sense at all. But if someone already planned to buy an iPod Touch for whatever reason, than the $20 application may well buy them some time before a dedicated electronic dictionary will hold them back. And by then, the price of said device may well have dropped by that much (or more).

I'll agree with you there. I was just pointing out that the app is not a replacement for a denshi jisho. I think we agree on this.