English<->Japanese / kanji dictionary for the DS?

Firebrand

So it's about time I got myself a proper English<->Japanese dictionary and one for looking up kanji, preferrably rolled into one, for my Japanese classes. The recommendation from my teachers is getting a word tank, but I don't have quite the cash to spend on one at the moment.

But, I have a DS, with two screens and stylus input, no less. I figure there are at least one product out there, but is there something that's viable for people who are more proficient in English and less in Japanese?

If anyone got suggestions, I'd appreciate it greatly.

DarkPrimus

Not for those who can't read much Japanese, no.

But I know there is a Japanese-language kanji dictionary available for the DS with touch-screen input.

Vegan

Firebrand wrote: »

So it's about time I got myself a proper English<->Japanese dictionary and one for looking up kanji, preferrably rolled into one, for my Japanese classes. The recommendation from my teachers is getting a word tank, but I don't have quite the cash to spend on one at the moment.

But, I have a DS, with two screens and stylus input, no less. I figure there are at least one product out there, but is there something that's viable for people who are more proficient in English and less in Japanese?

If anyone got suggestions, I'd appreciate it greatly.

Don't expect English-language self-improvement titles. Japan has tons because it's a cultural thing. In America not only do we not care about self-improvement, the DS doesn't have anywhere near the mainstream penetration that it has in Japan. You think it's big here? Think again, that's nothing.

NickTheNewbie

Is there a kanji dictionary for the DS that let's you draw the kanji, and it can recognize it?

Jimmy5150

This game seems like it would be closest to what you'd want. It's essentially a word tank for about $220 cheaper. The only downside is that you can only search for kanji in japanese but then again, in my 5 years of study I've never searched for kanji with just the english meaning, so I wouldn't consider it a huge issue.

schmads

This isn't to answer the question, but more to ask what exactly a word tank is, and can anyone recommend a good one, or brand? Are there similar things for Korean, or maybe English/Japanese/Korean combos? I'm thinking of those little hand-held keyboard/screen folding thingies... is that what you're talking about? Any recommendations? I do a bit of travelling there and don't know a damn thing of the languages, and this might be a good place to ask for info.

TM2 Rampage

Wordtank is a brand of electronic dictionary. Google "wordtank." It's on wikipedia, too. Expensive... hrm.

LibrarianThorne

Firebrand wrote: »

So it's about time I got myself a proper English<->Japanese dictionary and one for looking up kanji, preferrably rolled into one, for my Japanese classes. The recommendation from my teachers is getting a word tank, but I don't have quite the cash to spend on one at the moment.

But, I have a DS, with two screens and stylus input, no less. I figure there are at least one product out there, but is there something that's viable for people who are more proficient in English and less in Japanese?

If anyone got suggestions, I'd appreciate it greatly.

There is an awesome English/Japanese/Chinese dictionary for the DS, but you do have to know at least Hiragana, some kanji (to recognize the English, Japanese, and Chinese settings), and Katakana to use it. After checking the link, Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten is it. It got me through a lot of tough situations while I was studying abroad, oh and you can do flash cards in it too.

Put it simply, if you're studying Japanese, that's the best $48.90 you will ever spend.

Edit: Also, the example sentences are made of win. For ningen (humanity/humankind/mankind/etc.) one of the example sentences is "God has decreed that all men shall die." Nintendo is brilliant.

schmads

TM2 Rampage wrote: »

Wordtank is a brand of electronic dictionary. Google "wordtank." It's on wikipedia, too. Expensive... hrm.

Groovy, I didn't realize it was the brand. Thanks!

Oh wow... expensive is right. Ouch. Still... maybe I could expense it, although only if there was a Korean one as well, which doesn't seem to be their thing. Good to know in the future, anyways.

Tsao

schmads wrote: »

TM2 Rampage wrote: »

Wordtank is a brand of electronic dictionary. Google "wordtank." It's on wikipedia, too. Expensive... hrm.

Groovy, I didn't realize it was the brand. Thanks!

Oh wow... expensive is right. Ouch. Still... maybe I could expense it, although only if there was a Korean one as well, which doesn't seem to be their thing. Good to know in the future, anyways.

There are electronic dictionaries available that do multiple languages, including English/Japanese/Korean. I've only ever seen one, and it was in Japan and also included French, Spanish, and German, and it cost around 50,000 yen, but they do exist.

Gihgehls

Not really a dictionary, but I thought folks might be interested to know there is a homebrew DS app for learning hiragana and katakana. It is still in development.

http://nds.zoelen.net/

Æthelred

Does anyone know anything much about this other game?

This "Game" is specially made for those Japanese and not-Japanese Persons Looking to take the Kanji Certification.

Not entirely a game (Only by the Mini Games all relating to Kanjis)but quite useful in studying, learning and preparing your self for the real Kanji Certification made, in foreigner countries at the Japanese Consulate or by a Kanji Certificate Organization in Japan. this Certification has several "kyu" or "grades" that depends on the difficulty level of the kanjis and their uses and this game seems to cover all "kyus", even the 1"kyu" or "grade" that is the most difficult one, and that could be interpreted as "fluent and proficient in Japanese" as Kanji is an important part of Japanese Written Language.

Firebrand

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out this Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten product.

I've got about a year of fulltime university studies under my belt, got about 400 kanji more or less memorized. I don't think menus can be hard to figure out. My worries about these Japanese products is how well they work from an English-speaker's standpoint. Like, if I bring up a kanji and there are example words, are they linked to the English dictionary or do I have to look them up separately? Is the English->Japanese dictionary as comprehensive as the Japanese->English one? Stuff like that.

I'd really like a wordtank, but yeah, they're expensive.

Bremen

Firebrand wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out this Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten product.

I've got about a year of fulltime university studies under my belt, got about 400 kanji more or less memorized. I don't think menus can be hard to figure out. My worries about these Japanese products is how well they work from an English-speaker's standpoint. Like, if I bring up a kanji and there are example words, are they linked to the English dictionary or do I have to look them up separately? Is the English->Japanese dictionary as comprehensive as the Japanese->English one? Stuff like that.

I'd really like a wordtank, but yeah, they're expensive.

I happen to own this, and I have to agree it's awesome for an english speaker learning Japanese (Though it is intended for japanese speakers, and has no english mode). You can draw the kanji in with the stylus (Hint to save future pain: The recognition program seems to be based more on stroke order then positioning), and if you do multiple kanji in succession it will try to match up a word containing those kanji with its built in dictionary. Words are defined in both japanese and english, but individual characters and not outright word combinations are only defined in Japanese. The dictionary itself will get just about any modern, common use word, though it will not translate certain words for specific things (I am remembering an incident where I had to spend an hour translating the Kanji for something like "Department of resource and land management", and since it only has english definitions for words it wont be of any help recognizing the characters. Also, the Japanese language has been changing rapidly as of late and the dictionary will not recognize any archaic (read: 40 years old) readings.

That said, this is definitely an awesome tool and I couldn't have survived my 401 class (which we spent translating literature) without it.

Tsao

Bremen wrote: »

Firebrand wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out this Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten product.

I've got about a year of fulltime university studies under my belt, got about 400 kanji more or less memorized. I don't think menus can be hard to figure out. My worries about these Japanese products is how well they work from an English-speaker's standpoint. Like, if I bring up a kanji and there are example words, are they linked to the English dictionary or do I have to look them up separately? Is the English->Japanese dictionary as comprehensive as the Japanese->English one? Stuff like that.

I'd really like a wordtank, but yeah, they're expensive.

I happen to own this, and I have to agree it's awesome for an english speaker learning Japanese (Though it is intended for japanese speakers, and has no english mode). You can draw the kanji in with the stylus (Hint to save future pain: The recognition program seems to be based more on stroke order then positioning), and if you do multiple kanji in succession it will try to match up a word containing those kanji with its built in dictionary. Words are defined in both japanese and english, but individual characters and not outright word combinations are only defined in Japanese. The dictionary itself will get just about any modern, common use word, though it will not translate certain words for specific things (I am remembering an incident where I had to spend an hour translating the Kanji for something like "Department of resource and land management", and since it only has english definitions for words it wont be of any help recognizing the characters. Also, the Japanese language has been changing rapidly as of late and the dictionary will not recognize any archaic (read: 40 years old) readings.

That said, this is definitely an awesome tool and I couldn't have survived my 401 class (which we spent translating literature) without it.

Another opinion from someone with the Rakubiki Jiten: I agree with most of what Bremen had to say. The kanji-drawing ability is a lifesaver for those times when you've got unknown kanji, no furigana, and no access to a desktop with the Windows IME pad and internet access. The dictionary has a pretty large lexicon, although as Bremen said, it can struggle with specific terminology.

A few other drawbacks:
- There is a "jump" function (go to the definition of a word from within the definition you're currently reading), but it's very limited. For the most part, you can only jump to English words, which isn't really all that helpful for a native English speaker.

- The lexicon isn't as large as it could be. Obviously, 240,000 entries is enough for the great majority of things you're going to be looking up, but some of the more uncommon kanji and idioms aren't in the dictionary. It's definitely not so good at a lot of name kanji, although not many things are. :P

- Not all Japanese words in the dictionary have English translations.

I generally use the Rakubiki in conjunction with my Wordtank, depending on whether I need to write out the kanji or not. Overall, it's definitely worth the money, and a good substitute to having to spring the major cash for a good Wordtank. One thing you might want to do is invest in a good paper E-J/J-E dictionary as a companion for those times that the Rakubiki doesn't exactly cover what you're wanting to find.

dabicho

Hi.
I have got these two titles from play-asia
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-198v.html
Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-1i50.html
Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen DS

Those two are great, but the first one(black one) is more of a general dictionary than a kanji dictionary.
I am still looking for some ds title that will let me look for a kanji in the various available ways in dictionaries (like writing it, as it is the ds, from a radical, from a stroke count or sound) but I am looking info on the kanji itself (it's various readings and word/sentence examples/translations of the kanji itself and compounds) like what I can find on my kodansha kanji dictionary.

So anybody knows some title with that kind of info? Or am I missing something in Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten? (very plausible as I can not read that much japanese yet)

RainbowDespair

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

Firebrand wrote: »

So it's about time I got myself a proper English<->Japanese dictionary and one for looking up kanji, preferrably rolled into one, for my Japanese classes. The recommendation from my teachers is getting a word tank, but I don't have quite the cash to spend on one at the moment.

But, I have a DS, with two screens and stylus input, no less. I figure there are at least one product out there, but is there something that's viable for people who are more proficient in English and less in Japanese?

If anyone got suggestions, I'd appreciate it greatly.

There is an awesome English/Japanese/Chinese dictionary for the DS, but you do have to know at least Hiragana, some kanji (to recognize the English, Japanese, and Chinese settings), and Katakana to use it. After checking the link, Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten is it. It got me through a lot of tough situations while I was studying abroad, oh and you can do flash cards in it too.

Put it simply, if you're studying Japanese, that's the best $48.90 you will ever spend.

Edit: Also, the example sentences are made of win. For ningen (humanity/humankind/mankind/etc.) one of the example sentences is "God has decreed that all men shall die." Nintendo is brilliant.

It does Chinese as well? I'm just wondering since the link on Play-Asia said nothing about Chinese and I would find a cheap portable Chinese dictionary useful.

Future Blues

I have a friend who has a copy of kanji so no mama rakubiki jiten and he speaks very highly of it. I plan on picking a copy up in Tokyo in a week or so.

Although a good paper dictionary like The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary is irreplaceable, IMO. (Best general use kanji dictionary you can buy as far as English kanji dictionaries are concerned. This coming from someone who recently graduated with a B.A. in Japanese Lang and Literature just this May.)