Japanese electronic dictionary?

[jns4chat]

i'm thinking of purchasing a japanese<>english electronic dictionary. i heard that some has multiple functions like tv viewing. please recommend good ones (based on its dictionary function) and please also include what other functions it has and its price. (i don't much care for additional functions if there is one with a really good dictionary function)

[sashimidimsum7250]

Wow! And electronic dictionary with TV viewing? That blows my mind!

I haven't seen any of those, but I can recommend the one I have:Casio XD-GW9600. I love it, and can't imagine being without. So much in fact that I am going to buy a 2nd one for backup (or maybe I'll get the newer Casio XD-GP9700 instead) when I go back to Japan next month.

Read this review to see if the dictionary has what you want:
http://www.quinlanfaris.com/?p=87

Or if you are curious about the newer model, read this:
http://quinlanfaris.com/?p=128

[arrowisland]

I've seen the ones that can watch TV in the shops, but they seem so ridiculously pointless. Why do I need my dictionary to watch TV? If I need portable TV that badly, most cell phones have it.

As for recommendations, it depends on what you're after really, there are so many types these days. I have one that has English, Japanese and Korean, as well as the ability to write kanji into it. Most useful thing I ever bought.

[jns4chat]

Wow! And electronic dictionary with TV viewing? That blows my mind!

I haven't seen any of those, but I can recommend the one I have:Casio XD-GW9600. I love it, and can't imagine being without. So much in fact that I am going to buy a 2nd one for backup (or maybe I'll get the newer Casio XD-GP9700 instead) when I go back to Japan next month.

Read this review to see if the dictionary has what you want:
http://www.quinlanfaris.com/?p=87

Or if you are curious about the newer model, read this:
http://quinlanfaris.com/?p=128

thanks for the recommendation! i'm starting to like it! the price is a bit steep tho...

[sashimidimsum7250]

thanks for the recommendation! i'm starting to like it! the price is a bit steep tho...

I'm not sure which price you are looking at, but I was able to get it cheaper than what's selling online. If you buy it locally in Japan you can get it for about $50-$100 US less.

Good luck.

[jns4chat]

thanks for the recommendation! i'm starting to like it! the price is a bit steep tho...

I'm not sure which price you are looking at, but I was able to get it cheaper than what's selling online. If you buy it locally in Japan you can get it for about $50-$100 US less.

Good luck.

I saw the XD-GW9600 on amazon japan for Y35,800. what do you think of this price? or... do you know a better place to shop for denshijishou?

[sashimidimsum7250]

That's a good price, about what I paid for it. Yamada Denki and Bic Camera were a lot more.

I got it from store called "Komehyo":

http://www.komehyo.co.jp/

From one their Nagoya branches.

[jns4chat]

That's a good price, about what I paid for it. Yamada Denki and Bic Camera were a lot more.

I got it from store called "Komehyo":

http://www.komehyo.co.jp/

From one their Nagoya branches.

any chance the price will fall in a couple of months?

[sashimidimsum7250]

I think you can count on the price falling for sure, especially if you are going to buy the older model.

If you are not in the hurry, just buy it when you get to Japan. That'd be my advice.

I'll be Japan next month. I'll report back on the prices once I get another dictionary.

[jns4chat]

I think you can count on the price falling for sure, especially if you are going to buy the older model.

If you are not in the hurry, just buy it when you get to Japan. That'd be my advice.

I'll be Japan next month. I'll report back on the prices once I get another dictionary.

sorry to pop out another question, but is NDS a good alternative? i heard that one can also buy a dictionary cartridge for that. will it turn out to be more expensive?

[sashimidimsum7250]

sorry to pop out another question, but is NDS a good alternative? i heard that one can also buy a dictionary cartridge for that. will it turn out to be more expensive?

I have the NDS dictionary as well. And used it a lot before I got the Casio. It's quite good for what it does. It's easier to carry (the Casio is huge in comparison) And if you already have an NDS , it's an even better value since it's so cheap. The most useful thing about it is that you can jot down Kanji on the touch screen for easy lookup. But you can't take your time as the dictionary auto submits if you take your pen off the screen for too long. But you can slow it down. But you probably won't have that problem being from Taiwan since you already know Chinese characters. You can also do lookups using Hiragana or Katakana. Every word in the Japanese-English dictionary has the pronunciation of the Kanji in hiragana. You definitely can't beat it for the price.

You just need to adjust your expectations accordingly. It's not going to be as feature packed as the Casios, but it's still pretty good.

[jns4chat]

sorry to pop out another question, but is NDS a good alternative? i heard that one can also buy a dictionary cartridge for that. will it turn out to be more expensive?

I have the NDS dictionary as well. And used it a lot before I got the Casio. It's quite good for what it does. It's easier to carry (the Casio is huge in comparison) And if you already have an NDS , it's an even better value since it's so cheap. The most useful thing about it is that you can jot down Kanji on the touch screen for easy lookup. But you can't take your time as the dictionary auto submits if you take your pen off the screen for too long. But you can slow it down. But you probably won't have that problem being from Taiwan since you already know Chinese characters. You can also do lookups using Hiragana or Katakana. Every word in the Japanese-English dictionary has the pronunciation of the Kanji in hiragana. You definitely can't beat it for the price.

You just need to adjust your expectations accordingly. It's not going to be as feature packed as the Casios, but it's still pretty good.

well, since i only need the electronic dictionary for japanese-english lookups i won't have much need for the additional functions anyway (what functions are they by the way?). as for nds, what's the name of the cartridge that fits my purposes?

thanks for answering all of my questions

[sashimidimsum7250]

The dictionary for the NDS you want is:

漢字そのままDS楽引辞典
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g- ... -198v.html

As for features that you'll miss, well, there are so many to list. Two that I cannot do without now that I use a lot are:

1. The ability to highlight any character on the screen and jump to its pronunciation and meaning. This useful because in the Japanese - English dictionary you will see a lot of examples in Japanese using that word that you looked up. But if you don't know what the other words in the example mean, the example is useless. The casio also let you import text files. So what I often do is import emails from a panpal and then use the dictionary's jump function to look words I don't know by just highlighting them.

2. The ability to get other Kanji compounds. For example you bring up 電, you can hit a key to bring all words that have that Kanji in it anywhere in the word. Very useful for learning compounds.


Oh another , maybe not so common feature, is the ability to get origin of the Kanji: How it looks unsimplified, and how's it pronounced in Mandarin. Also for Kanji used in names, you will see their possible pronunciations.

[jns4chat]

The dictionary for the NDS you want is:

漢字そのままDS楽引辞典
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g- ... -198v.html

As for features that you'll miss, well, there are so many to list. Two that I cannot do without now that I use a lot are:

1. The ability to highlight any character on the screen and jump to its pronunciation and meaning. This useful because in the Japanese - English dictionary you will see a lot of examples in Japanese using that word that you looked up. But if you don't know what the other words in the example mean, the example is useless. The casio also let you import text files. So what I often do is import emails from a panpal and then use the dictionary's jump function to look words I don't know by just highlighting them.

2. The ability to get other Kanji compounds. For example you bring up 電, you can hit a key to bring all words that have that Kanji in it anywhere in the word. Very useful for learning compounds.


Oh another , maybe not so common feature, is the ability to get origin of the Kanji: How it looks unsimplified, and how's it pronounced in Mandarin. Also for Kanji used in names, you will see their possible pronunciations.

i guess i should get an electronic dictionary, then. are there any functions in the ds version that i'd miss?

thanks again

[sashimidimsum7250]

I can't think of anything you'd miss if you get one of the Casios instead of the DS dictionary.