Job Discussion Forums

[fat_chris]

Greetings,

I have been in Japan for 22 months and have been studying Japanese during my time in this country. I do enjoy it and I have amassed a small collection of language books to help me along the way.

But, but...! The one thing that I do not own is an electronic dictionary. I will take the JLPT, Level 2, this July and I shall then reward myself with the purchase of an electronic dictionary (finally!). I am most interested in a model with a stylus and pad that I can use to write kanji. Furthermore, I am willing to pay up to 30,000 yen. I will probably make the purchase when I am in Tokyo in early August: my first stop would be the West Shinjuku Yodobashi near the Keio department store and Shinjuku station.

Of added interest would be a trilingual model for Japanese, English, and Mandarin. This is not an absolute necessity though and I would be happy with a bilingual model if "that's how my cards were dealt".

Any advice, opinions, and/or anecdotes about the various models and their prices and features? Any additional advice on how to go about making this purchase (i.e., websites, stores in Shizuoka-ken and/or Tokyo)?

Many thanks in advance!

Regards,
fat_chris

[GreenCardigan]

Hi Chris,

Lots of variety in terms of e-dictionaries.

I'm not going to tell you what to buy, but I will tell you which dictionary not to buy. And that's Sharp's electronic dictionary. I bought one a few years ago. The aluminum casing under the screen soon began to crack. I was furious. Brought it back to the manufacturer and demanded they fix it. They did at no cost. Still, I was dissapointed that thing came apart so easily. Not built to last--that's for sure. model PWA-8500 I still use it now but have the casing taped up, to decrease the stress on the joints when I open and close it.

I say go for durability, especially if you're going to use it a lot.

[pastis]

Just make sure you get one with a stylus... you'll use it more than anything. The one I have is kinda old by now, the newer ones are totally slick.

[fat_chris]

Thanks for the advice. I've heard that the models by Casio are decent.

Regards,
fat_chris

[kahilm]

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-198v.html

Put that in a gameboy DS and you're set. Cheaper than most electronic dictionaries too.

[wayne432]

[fat_chris]

Thanks to all for the input.

I have considered the DS route but I probably won't take it. Actually though, a friend recently sent me this advice about another alternative:

"I've had a change of mind. My friend recently showed me his ipod touch. You can load on a Japanese-Eng dictionary onto it, input kanji into it by writing on the screen. You can also install flashcard programs for study, load PDFs and e-books on it, any Japanese podcasts or MP3s onto it, as well as all the other crap that ipods do like video, photo storage, Skype, wireless internet etc."

Hmm...that is an idea to consider.

Regards,
fat_chris

[Hoser]

The ipod touch is a good idea. I have one and I have the Japanese-English dictionary, kanji writing, kanji cards,s etc etc

Another option would be to pick up a PDA. I did that as well. Got myself an HP iPAQ 110 and loaded a Japanese-English dicitonary on it. It cost me a lot less than an actual electronic dictionary and I can do a lot more stuff on it.

[fat_chris]

Cheers, Hoser.

I'm going to look into that.

Regards,
fat_chris

[johnyuehan]

I got an electronic dictionary from japaneselanguagetools dot com a few months ago, very pleased with it. Basicaly a PDA with several Japanese & English dictionaries on it. Can type or write w. a stylus. Wifi, bluetooth, optional GPs, other things too. A very nice replacement to my regular Canon E/J dictionary that I used for many years.