Electronic dictionary -where to buy it?
 

Hello everyone,

I am more or less a new member to this forum and I am hoping to get help from you.

Where would you buy a good English-Japanese electronic dictionary? (I have in mind those calculator-type looking electronic dictionaries). Should I buy them in the U.S. or in Japan?
How much should I expect to pay for a decent one?
What functions should it have?
Could you recommend a certain type or a brand?

I've been studying Japanese in a very serious fashion for 1 year now and I am going to do a home stay/language program to Hokkaido this summer. I know that there exists a huge array of these electronic dictionaries in Japan but I am not sure if they are totally suitable for non-Japanese. Your thoughts? Otherwise, I'll have about 1-2 days in Tokyo to look around and buy one. Any suggestions where to go?

Thank you for your all input in advance,

ivo

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.

Mine was about ￥30,000, but it came with a kanji writer. Casio EX-word.

Although I admit, I get more out of looking up kanji I don't know than learning Japanese words from it. There's usually a bit of back and forth between the English->Japanese and Japanese->English sections to be sure I have the correct term.

If you have a lot of extra cash lying around and are serious about learning Japanese, I did find this thing:
Japanese Language Tools--Complete System
It's ridiculously expensive, but appears to be quite useful.

However, if you've been studying hard for a year, and are capable of doing a homestay, I don't see why you couldn't get away with just buying one from a store in Tokyo. You should be able to use a cheaper one from there just fine.
I don't know about the prices now, but you could get electronic dictionaries without a kanji writer for as low as ￥8000. But as Hatredcopter stated, a good dictionary runs around the ￥250,000+ area.

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While I agree with this sentiment with many types of software, there are no free or open source alternatives that are as comprehensive (and portable) as these electronic dictionaries.

You get what you pay for.

Free sources will never be as good as the professionally developed methods you purchase.

I went the Japan town last time. And wow! these dictionaries are expensive, the cheapest one is around like 250$ , and some reach as high as 400$. YOu could get it from Amazon, tho. still its too expensive for me

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I find a DS and kanji sonomama jiten works well. (not English interface or manual so you have to be intermediate at Japanese at least to use it.)

Well, that's true, but not in this case!
The topic is about portable electric dictionaries　(in japanese 電子辞書), little computer-like machines that carry a lot of different dictionaries and are very useful for everyone.

I'm a big fan of freeware stuff, but it's simply not possibile to download a freeware version of an electronic device.:mtongue:

In topic:
If you're going to Tokyo, you'll find a good selection of dictionaries in every electronics store. Try the biggest ones, like Yodobashi camera, Bikku camera, LAOX, etc.
Basic models can be found also at reasonable prices (around 25.000yen).
Obviously, advanced models (with a touchpad, voice recognition, upgradeable firmware or color screen) can be much more expensive.
I strongly suggest you buy your dictionary while you are in Japan! Outside Japan, these things are very very expensive.

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.

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

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.

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^_^

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 ;)