Job Discussion Forums

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

hey guys. thanx for all the great advice you all have given me in the past. now i have another question.

im trying to buy an electronic dictionary to help me with my japanese. is there any out there that is good? i cant read kanji so i need one that can translate english words to japanese hiragana and katakana. any that you all would recommend??

thanx

and maybe english instructions or menus, if such a thing exists, that i can buy here in japan. maybe one that also has furigana (i think thats wat it is, where they have small hiragana on top of the kanji).

fizayded · Joined: 17 Apr 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Machida, Tokyo

had an older canon wordtank, kinda sucked imho. I think its geared more for japanese learning english. And they are pretty pricey. Try to discourage your students from using them in class too, their entries are a little off. The kanji dictionary is pretty handy though.

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=24298

I have a G50. I know it currently retails for 18000yen which is a bargain. It depends on how much you have to spend though. If you have 25K I recommend the G55 as it has more entries, a faster CPU (it's a noticeable difference) and a dictionary that provides furigana readings next to the kanji. It's a great dictionary to study with because it can "spell" kanji, it's fantastic when you want to learn how to write new kanji and are not sure of the stroke order. It has a standard Jump feature so if you do see a kanji you don't know you can just highlight the character and get the hiragana reading.

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

ive been looking at the g50 and the g55. thinking about it since i have read information about them on the web but i have a question. does that mean the g50 doesnt have furigana for their kanji?? this is very important for me. and do you know a site where i can download the english manual if i do decide to get one?

and other good dictionaries out there that has furigana??

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

I've gotten by fine without the furigana. If I see a kanji I have no idea how to read I just use the Jump button and shift the word to the Eng-Jap (Kenkyusha) dictionary where the reading automatically appears at the top of the entry. The G50 comes with an English manual (all English as well, not a small index in the back of a Japanese manual) and you can change the language options on the dictionary so everything is in English. Canon also seems to be the only dictionary maker to have a kanji speller which makes any of the Wordtank series a must buy IMO. That said, I love the EX-Word dictionaries. They usually have a better screen resolution and the newer ones have removable memory cards.

zander7990 · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 65

did you have to ask for the english manual when you bought the g50 or did it come with the package along with the japanese manual?

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

You have to ask for it. The Japanese staff member at Yodobashi Camera just took one look at me though and got the manual without asking. I just checked Yodobashi Camera's site and the G55 is listed at 29800 to the G50's 19800. I don't think the G55 is worth the extra 10000 unless you need a faster processor and more dictionary entries (G55: 380000, G50:270000).

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

What are these things like for reading place names and the like, I've found alot of the more obsure kanji and different reading are in place names.
I'm just thinking of getting one for my wife who is the wanderer

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

With the Wordtank series you can search for kanji a number of ways. The easiest way is by stroke count, this can be a little tricky if you aren't familiar with the way kanji is written though. The other is by radical stroke count (a small piece of the kanji, radicals can be hard to spot sometimes though). I have used my dictionary to look up kanji I have spotted on a sign and I have found the entry for it 80% of the time.

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

Rorschach: Not quite. I'm sure many Canon Wordtanks do have those kanji features, but mine sure doesn't. It's a 3200 I believe, about 1 yr old, cost 15,000 yen new. No kanji lookup options at all on that one.

If that particular feature is important to you, make sure you have it on the unit you choose before you naturally assume that it does given its brand name.

JD

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

It's a standard feature on all the Wordtank dictionaries since the G50. Very useful but a little tedious at times because you have to scroll through a lot of entries if you don't get the stroke count right.