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[The_IGN_Man]

I'm looking for opinions on Japanese-English electronic dictionaries. I'm currently a UCLA student learning Japanese, and I plan on attenting either Tokyo Institute of Technology or Tohoku University in Sendai for all of next year. After some research, the one I *think* I want is the new Canon G50 Wordtank. I'm almost positive I have enough Japanese knowledge to operate it, but I certainly don't want a simplified one for the sake of ease now. The point of the dictionary is to be a long term aid in becoming fully fluent, so if it's a bit tough to use at first, that's ok. I also plan on using it for help with kanji and such in videogames, but that's not its main function. I think I'll mainly use it for my classes here at UCLA as well as traveling around in Japan next year.

Now that you know my intent for the machine though, I was wondering if anyone who's in Japan, has knowledge of the Wordtank line, or is otherwise familiar with electronic dictionaries can give me advice. Is the G50 wordtank you would recommend as a great overall dictionary? How hard is it to use looking at it from the English speaking standpoint? If you happen to know, how much do they cost in Japan now? One of my dilemmas is deciding whether to order it online now (and thus get to use it during the rest of the year), or to wait until I'm in Japan where it might be cheaper.

Assuming the G50 is my best option, I found this store run by Clay and Yumi, whose names sound very familiar in relation to my Wordtank researching. LINK Does anyone know if this site is reliable? They're got the cheapest G50 by $15, as well as free shipping, so overall it's about $40 cheaper here than elsewhere.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[BioFan]

[edit]
thanks

 

[BugCatcher]

It looks like you've done your homework. That's really refreshing; I've known too many Japanese students who plunked down $100-200 for an electronic dictionary they grew to hate later. If you like, you can read a post I wrote about this on another forum:
http://donut.parodius.com/mo/messages/7098.html
The original is about a year old, and a lot of it isn't really relevant anymore, but I did update it somewhat last month when someone else was asking for advice.

IMO, the G50 is pretty bare-bones in its content, and not particularly attractive, either. It covers all the basics pretty well (eiwa, waei, eiei, kanji, katakana, and kokugo jiten), but that's it. As your Japanese improves, it's handy to have specialized dictionaries, like a kotowaza or kogo jiten. I really like the Casio EX-Word series of dictionaries, but of course, people always think what they own is the best Take a look:
http://www.casio.co.jp/exword/product/life.html

If you're set on the G50, the price on that site seems to be in line with what you'd pay for it in Japan, but you can get a lot more content for the money if you check out some of the other brands. Try searching on www.amazon.co.jp for an easy way to get a rough feel for prices. For example:
Canon G50 - 9 dictionaries, Y25,800
Casio XD-H6500 - 70 dictionaries, Y24,800

As far as usage goes, you shouldn't have any trouble with the waei jiten, but reading the Japanese definitions in the eiwa jiten or kokugo jiten can be tricky for a beginner. Fortunately, you won't have to use the kokugo jiten most of the time until you start learning less common words that won't appear in the waei jiten, although it's still a good idea to try to use it as much as possible to help improve your reading ability. Using the kanji jiten can be really time consuming if you don't know the names of the radicals and have to look things up by stroke count (and reading, if you know one). Knowing even a few dozen radical names can help a lot here. If I'm at my computer, I prefer to use the Japanese IME in Windows XP to just draw the character into notepad (or whatever), then look up the reading in a Japanese dictionary program.

Hope this helps!

 

[The_IGN_Man]

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if I was even headed in the right direction, so it's nice to get some feedback. I'll definitely look into Casio's line a bit more and compare the features. I don't know exactly what it is I'll need and want in the future, but having at least heard from you that Casio is up there in terms of features, I'll spend a bit more time looking closely between those of Casio and Canon. Thanks again.

EDIT: I'm having some trouble finding good info on Casio models that's in English. You have any more references for info on Casios that's in English by any chance? There's only so much I've been able to decipher from Casio's Japanese site.

 

[BugCatcher]

Don't forget Sharp's PW series of electronic dictionaries! They are right up there with Casio in terms of content, and have some special features of their own (color screens, content expansion using SD cards), so it's worth checking out. They have the most feature-packed, expensive dictionary on Amazon, the PC-C8000, weighing in at Y48,000. Casio may not have color screens like Sharp, but they do have a backlit model, a feature I really wish mine had.

You won't find much information about these in English, though. There isn't much demand for these things outside of Japan, so pretty much the only information you can find is from merchants selling (usually) overpriced and dated models. Even though Canon's dictionaries have the least features out of the three, they are seemingly the only brand on the radar of importers. Before I went to Japan, I tried looking for dictionaries online like you, and it seemed like Wordtanks were the only things out there. I was really surprised how much more there was when I finally went to Japan and explored the big electronics shops. I took home the dictionary brochures for each maker to compare features, and spent hours in Bic and Yodobashi playing with their demo models to see which was the easiest to use, most comprehensive, etc. I would recommend either Sharp or Casio; these were the two brands I was torn between before buying mine, but I felt Casio's EX-Words had a more intuitive interface (at least for a barely literate foreigner), so I went that route.

To be honest, the XD-R6200 that I use now is actually my second electronic dictionary. I originally just used a shitty Random House paper dictionary that I had brought with me from the states. Four months after arriving in Japan, I supplemented it with the XD-470, which I found for Y9800 (cheap at the time; at most places it retailed for Y12,800). It is actually a really bad dictionary, but you can use a stylus to write kanji, which is what sold me on it. This was really handy when I first got there, as I only knew about 300-500 kanji, and I used it all the time at the grocery store or when trying to read things around the city. I didn't want to spring for a more expensive dictionary, because at the time there were no dictionaries with SuperJump (explained in that post I linked to), and my Japanese really wasn't good enough to make an educated decision on what to buy. While it was really useful for kanji, after six months I was so fed up with its limitations that I started hunting for a proper dictionary. I ended up with the R6200, the one I'm still using today, and it was worth every penny. It's only got 23 dictionaries, and I really would like to trade up for one of the newer models (I want that backlight!), but it still serves me so well that I can't justify the expense.

I think it would be a good idea for you to just hold out until you go to Japan to take advantage of the better prices and selection, and also until you can make sense of the product pages I linked to. Maybe I am just the patient type, but I waited until my Japanese was good enough to understand the product pamphlets before deciding on a model. On the other hand, I didn't have much choice; I didn't know anybody who had been to Japan to give me advice, so I was on my own. So you may not need to wait as long as I did to make a good purchase

 

[BugCatcher]

BTW, I saw in another (old) thread that you managed to set up your exchange to do CS/engineering research in Japan. How did you arrange this? I've only been on your run-of-the-mill exchange tailored for foreign language students. I'm interested in doing a research-oriented exchange after I start my master's in CS this fall, but I'm not sure where to start.

Anybody else have experience doing a research-based exchange to Japan?

 

[The_IGN_Man]

Thanks for the additional info. I read through your notes in your link a couple days ago, and it was helpful. I actually emailed Clay at that store I listed above, and he's emailed me with some additional ideas about the Casios and Sharps. He even said he'd look into prices for importing the ones that aren't listed on his site now. He seems like a really nice guy, and likely a good source for getting a good model without being in Japan. While I know I could wait and get one if I really had to, I think I'm too eager to get my hands on mine. I wanna have a good feel for it by the time I leave, in combination with just wanting to use it during the rest of this year at school.

As for my research, I'm doing it through UCLA's standard study abroad program called EAP, Education Abroad Program. You can see EAP's site here: EAP . You can see that they divide the study abroad into language of instruction as well as engineering/non-engineering, so the process was fairly straight forward for me. Obviously you won't be using this site unless you're at UCLA, but maybe the school you're doing your masters at has a similar program/arrangement with schools in Japan for research. Grad school research would no doubt be more intense than anything I'll be doing in Japan as an undergrad though, so I'm not sure what grad school level research oportunities are available. Best of luck to you in finding something though. If you do happen to find something, please let me know. I'd be interested in heading back for more as a grad student myself if this one works out as well as I hope.