Denshi jisho

[Balsa1]

is there such a thing as an electronic dictionary with text-to-speech for Japanese words? Casio? Seiko? Canon?

I found this: http://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-partner-ej900-deluxe/

apparently made in the UK. The scanner seems to be a good idea, now, is it a good tool? I have doubts regarding the included data (kanjis ...).

Advice welcome.

I'm a beginner (close to JLPT 4 level I think) but plan long-term studying of the Japanese language...

[Belton]

You've had no replies....

I guess because no-one here uses it or has seen it. It does seem a bit of a niche dictionary. The more popular models of denshi jisho are made in Japan by Canon or Seiko.

So I have no first hand knowledge of this either. What I have is a couple of observations.

I find I don't use a handheld dictionary like this. (although I own a Canon G55) I use my laptop. When travelling I mostly just rely on what I can remember, life's too short to be farting about with dictionaries on holiday.

This dictionary is expensive. If it were me I'd look at an iPod Touch. More versatile, more potential for different data sets. Eijiro, JEdict, etc. and you have the bonus of music, video, pdfs etc etc. and a phone if you go for an iPhone.

The OCR I'd want to see in action. Does it really work on Japanese reliably? What about speed of scan? I'd have my doubts.

The speaking bit. It's not that crucial for single words in Japanese really. Japanese is wonderfully regular in pronunciation so the written word is often enough. If you do want this feature it's better to have a real person than computer generated voices. jPod has a dictionary app that does this. Computer generated voices can also misread kanji sometimes in my experience.

Audio recognition.
Again you've got to see this for real before spending money. It can be notoriously unreliable. Does it work in Japanese or just English?

Also as a beginner you really don't use a huge dictionary that much. A paper beginner dictionary is much better because it gives usage advice. Check out the Oxford beginners dictionary.( for a fraction of the price)
Then an iPod with a good JEdict reader will do 99% of what you might need. (IMHO) for half the price.

[Balsa1]

Thanks for your reply and advice.

I've been mulling it over for a while and I believe an iPod Touch with a bunch of good apps should fulfill my current needs.

Now, I have to build patience and fight frustration as my progress is slow but I have time -several years- and the will to study on a regular basis so I'll wait until the day I "graduate" from Beginner to Advanced