Rakuhiki Jiten / ?Easy-Use Dictionary? (DS)

[JU!]

Is it worth buying this if i already have an electronic Japanese dictionairy? It does sound good though.

[Bassman]

It is the only Japanese English Dictionary I have. Haven't really made a great deal of use out of it yet. I suppose I am trying to climb the learning curve!!! The character recognition I suppose is potentially useful though, depending on how well it translates. At least there are keyboards for the three languages which at least gives a fighting chance of correct entry. It seems a good addition for the DS as the touch screen gets a good workout with all the buttons for the various options. I have a game that arrived yesterday (budget Japanese title) which I really ought to see if I can begin to translate. That ought to be a good test of its usefulness.

[Golgo]

I write or type in a couple of Japanese characters and it doesn't always seem to instigate a search from the relevant button (can't remember which one it is at the moment).

The only thing I can think of is that you're entering Japanese when you have the English-Japanese icon downpressed (The one on left, top-right). Either of the 3 below this one should provide a search that is updated character-by-character. Lemme check...

[Bassman]

I thought that I had the correct icon pressed (it is easy to have the wrong one active I find). Just a matter of being careful I suppose. A guide to that screen would be rather useful.

[r3z]

I have been using the new version Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten for a few days now so I thought I'd give you my impressions..

First of all, I don't really know how the dictionary itself compares to the previous version but it seems quite reasonable. I mentioned before in this thread that I use a PDA dictionary and compared to that it does not seem quite as concise (and the dictionary I use on my PDA is certainly not the best available). The big difference for me regarding the dictionary content itself is the usage examples which are given which I don't have on my PDA (although it is possible to buy a dictionary which has it). These can be quite useful to correctly understand the translation and how a word is applied, but don't always seem to be accurate.

Regarding the function of the dictionary, it is definitely less useable than the PDA as an English user because its obviously only aimed at Japanese. The main flaw is the jump function only allows you to jump to another English word, you cannot highlight a Japanese one at all. It seems strange because there is a normal Japanese dictionary of definitions as well as the translation ones so maybe Japanese people would want to switch dictionaries and check a word themselves when they translate a strange English word to Japanese(?). But at least you can enter exactly what you see on screen even if you don't know the correct reading.
There are some interesting word games included as well which include writing the correct kanji or reading, and completing a sentence with the correct grammar, although it's obviously quite an advanced level.

Anyway, the *big* functional improvement over the previous Rakubiki Jiten is obviously kanji handwriting recognition. It's absence from that one was the main reason I didn't bother with it, and when I first played the Japanese Brain Training 2 and found they had some cool training games with excellent kanji recognition I found myself wondering how Nintendo missed such a great trick by not putting it in. This is something I have on my PDA, and for a non-Japanese it is by far the best feature a Japanese-English dictionary could have. Probably for Japanese also it is much nicer to directly enter a kanji to go directly to the correct meaning, or simply for checking unfamiliar compounds if they don't know the reading.

Not only that, but the recognition is fantastic - within reason you can really scrawl, or write kanji incorrectly (although not a good practice to do in general!), such as wrong stroke order or direction, and even the odd stroke number out and it recognises it as the right one 9 times out of 10, or it will be within the next few options available at least using the convenient selection feature. The dictionary on my PDA is very strict about all of these things, which while good in the long run as it's best to write correctly to be able to learn kanji properly is not so useful when you just want a quick lookup of a difficult kanji which you're not sure about the exact strokes and number used. It would be great if you could turn these 'strictness' features on and off, but it looks like I will have to use the PDA for correct kanji practice and the DS for quick and easy lookups.

Therefore, among other reasons (such as my PDA is also old and battered with increasingly poor battery-life and weak backlight), but mainly because of this kanji recognition I think I will just be using my PDA for more accurate translation when needed (plus dictionaries for kanji readings and kanji name and place name readings), and the other general features it offers. But for now my main dictionary for translating on the go will be the DS Lite

"Two thumbs up"