Bought the Nintendo DS dictionary

[The7thSamurai]

Just thought I'd let you all know that today I bought a Nintendo DS and some dictionary software called 'kanji sono mama rakuhiki jisho' (or something like that) that uses the DS's little stylus pen. First impressions was that it was fantastic, second impressions have been downgraded just a little, but still pretty cool.

The best feature of it is that you can use the stylus to write in kanji whose pronounciation you don't know. So I can now sit on the train and type in random kanji that I see on signs. The dictionary is pretty comphrensive, it comes with a full English/Japanese dictionay but of course it was made for Japanese people learning English, thus you get the English pronounciation and not the Japanese one.

One thing that I think it'll help with most is when I'm translating from a book, I won't have to search my current electronic dictionary by character.

When you look up a word it usually gives you a heap of example sentences, just like most dictionaries do.

Another great feature, which isn't quite suitable for me yet, is that it has hundreds of little quizzes on all things Japanese - pronounciation of kanji, kanji used for certain words etc. I'm looking forward to being good enough to be able to use this one.

 

[Damicci]

I so want that dictionary but don't want to keep asking my gf to send me stuff. will lok around online to see if i can order it from somewhere. Have you picked up the opera browser yet?

 

[RockLee]

Hmmm, now that sounds interesting ! I heard of this before, but didn't know the feats, etc.

 

[The7thSamurai]

Opera browser? Sorry I only bought this thing yesterday, what do you mean?

 

[kohlrak]

I tried earlier (when the power went out) to draw some kanji onto picto chat in my DS. Didn't turn out too well. lol

 

[Tomii515]

i have a nintendo DS =D what games you have? umm...do you knwo hwo muchthe dictionary was?

 

[Tomii515]

DS Rakuhiki Jiten: Kanji Sono Mama

is that it??? how much was it?

uhg...is the whole DS dictionary thing in japanese, or is it in english, with all the stuff...and is the box for the game...thing, w/e u wanna call ti all in japanese, cause that's all i found!?

 

[kohlrak]

I wish my razr supported MSN and had kana input... lol Hey, Buck, what other kinda need gadgets to they have over there?

 

[The7thSamurai]

Tomii, that's the one. It was about 4000 yen, that's $35 American dollars, $45 Australian dollars. It's all in Japanese but I figured it out in no time, it really simple. Actually, one of the ways I actually figured it out so quickly was by using the actual lookup feature to search for kanji that were on the menus! For example, I didn't know what 候補 meant so I wrote it into the boxes and up came the meaning "canditate" with the pronounciation こうほ. The function of the button brings up other possible kanjis from what you wrote in.

kohlrak, there are a few cool gadgets over here, I'm not really a gadget person though. The mobile phones are pretty advanced, many of them now have English/Japanese dictionaries.

 

[J44xm]

For some time, I have wanted a denshijisho and a Nintendo DS. Once I learned more about this software, I really began leaning toward the DS because the idea of looking up kanji by writing it out (instead of awkwardly looking up radicals and such) appeals to me greatly. I didn't actually know that it has an English-Japanese dictionary as well--I thought it was entirely in Japanese. I need a DS Lite and this software. (And Mario Kart DS.)

However, I would like to know what you meant by "second impressions have been downgraded just a little, but still pretty cool." Anything else, specifically, that's bugging you about it?

 

[The7thSamurai]

The main thing that bugs me is that, although it has an option to go through and highlight displayed English words on the screen (when an example sentence or phrase is given, allowing you to quickly search the definition of that English word), it doesn't give you that option for Japanese. So if I see an example sentence, and there's a word in Japanese that I don't know, I have to write it on the screen with the stylus rather that highlight it somehow. This can be a little annoying for kanji especially as I might not know the correct stroke order, thus making it a little tedious. (In actual fact, it might very well have this option, maybe I haven't found it yet???)

My Canon electronic dictionary, however, allows me to go through the displayed words and highlight anything, Japanese or English, and have the definition brought up immedietely.

Another thing that my Canon can do that the DS can't is give me an animated diagram of stroke order.

 

[J44xm]

Thanks for the explanation, Bucko. I think I want this software. I saw a demonstration of it at Eden (electronics store) today and it whet my appetite again.

 

[kohlrak]

kohlrak, there are a few cool gadgets over here, I'm not really a gadget person though. The mobile phones are pretty advanced, many of them now have English/Japanese dictionaries.

I used to have one of those digital assistant thingies, but i sat wrong one time and broke it. It had french, german, english, english spellcheck, itallian, and spanish, too bad i broke it. Made things much easier.