Turning Your iPhone Into a 電子辞書 (Denshi Jisho)

 Japanese Language, Technology  Comments Off on Turning Your iPhone Into a 電子辞書 (Denshi Jisho)
Oct 132009
 

So what’s a 電子辞書 (denshi jisho)?

Japanese for “electronic dictionary,”  it’s a gizmo that’s really handy if you’re learning Japanese. They’re usually full of all different kinds of dictionaries, and now they have things like a drawing pad where you can draw a kanji on the pad, and they will (usually) recognize the kanji you draw on the pad. So gone are the days of tediously looking up kanji by their respective parts.

Sounds great, right?

Well, there are downsides. For starters, 電子辞書 are hard to find outside of Japan. You have to find a way to import them, and that can wind up being very expensive. Also, they’re usually bulky and full of a lot of features you’re not going to use. And it’s one more thing to carry around.

My Sharp Papyrus has an MP3 player and a bunch of other random crap I just never use. I’ve seen others that have TV tuners. Seriously? I just want to look up some words.

My iPhone does just about all of that, only better.

My iPhone Can Haz Denshi Jisho?

If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you already own something that can easily be turned into a 電子辞書 if you’re willing to spend some money in the iTunes App store.

I’ve already mentioned the excellent 大辞林 (Daijirin) app, which gives you a great 国語 (kokugo— Japanese) dictionary for around $13 US.

If you need something more along the lines of a 英和/和英 dictionary (that would be an English-Japanese/Japanese English dictionary), then you can get the pretty good Genius 2 for $42, or the excellent 研究社 for $31, or the Wisdom for $24.

I love the 研究社 for its sample sentences, and its search robustness, but its interface is a little plain, and it lacks a super jump ability. You have to cut and paste words to search related words, which is kind of a pain.

There are also 四字熟語 dictionaries available as well as medical dictionaries. (The medical dictionaries are hideously expensive.)

To find Japanese dictionaries in the App Store, search under 辞書 or  辞典 (jisho or jiten… but you need to use the Japanese keyboard to generate those kanji.)

What About Drawing Kanji?

What about the kanji recognition? Does the iPhone have that?

Yes, it does. Of a sort.

Add the Chinese Traditional Handwriting keyboard under Settings> General> Keyboards> International> Chinese (Traditional). Then when you want to look up a kanji by drawing it, use the globe button to select the handwriting pad. Select until you see a big rectangular pad, and draw the kanji you’re looking for.

Draw slowly, and use proper stroke order. Then select one of the four kanji that pop up on the side. Voila. Kanji recognition– just like a $350 電子辞書, only it fits in your pocket.

Great iPhone Japanese Dictionary

 Japanese Language, Technology  Comments Off on Great iPhone Japanese Dictionary
Oct 032009
 

I was looking for a good portable dictionary for my iPhone, and I’ve found a couple of programs. One is great, one is free. If you’re going to use either one of these, make sure you install the Japanese keyboard and the Chinese Traditional “draw the kanji” keyboard on your iPhone, and take the time to learn how to use them.

For starters, there’s Kotoba!, which is a very basic free dictionary that is “based off of Jim Breen’s JMDict.” JMDict is essentially EDICT, which isn’t a professionally edited dictionary. But it is free, and it is Japanese->English. The definitions are very stripped-down, and sometimes confusing or misleading, and sometimes just wrong.

But did I mention that it’s free?

Daijirin is Awesome

If you’re beyond the beginner phase of learning Japanese, and if you’re comfortable using Japanese->Japanese dictionaries, I highly recommend the 大辞林 (Daijirin) dictionary, which is available from the iTunes app store as well for $12.99 US. It takes a little getting used to at first, but once you get comfortable with the interface, you’ll realize just how great it is.

For example: even if your Japanese isn’t as strong as you’d like, you can touch-select words in the definition you don’t understand, and it will allow you to jump to the definition. You can keep jumping until you figure everything out, then jump back to the original definition.

This is a great way to pick up a lot of new vocabulary, and gets you more proficient at using Japanese->Japanese dictionaries, which are always better at explaining Japanese words than Japanese->English dictionaries.

The best part about the 大辞林 is that you don’t have to shell out $300 for a portable electronic dictionary to get it, which is how it usually comes, and it means one less thing to carry around.

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