 Japanese made simple |
| Review Date: May 18, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Sasha Cohen, NYC |
Everyone goes on and on about the Canon but in fact, for the price you can't get anything better than this Ectaco EJ400T model. The price truly is incredible when you consider how useful it is.
It really does do everything the company says it does and is super simple to use, which is important for me 'cause it lets me concentrate on the language. I have also seen loads of people using this at school and when we showed it to some Japanese exchange students (some of whom had those pricey Canons) they said it was quite good from their point of view. I do think that when it comes time for me to go to Japan, I will be prepared with this in my pocket. And I agree, the search by Kanji through radicals or stroke orders is very handy. Also, the Roman transcription is a huge help to my pronunciation. |
Good Japanese <-> English electronic dictionary for the price...
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| Review Date: December 30, 2005 |
| Reviewer: S. Guthikonda, Columbus, OH |
This is a pretty solid dictionary. It will allow a beginner to intermediate English or Japanese speaker to effectively survive in a foreign country. While it is not up to par with some of the more advanced dictionaries, it does serve a purpose.
I have been studying Japanese for a couple years at the University. I plan on heading to Japan to study more, for a year duration. I needed an electronic dictionary to help me out. The interesting thing about Japanese/Chinese, is that there are so many characters (Kanji) that even native speakers do not know all the meanings/readings/writings! Nearly everyone I talked to says they carry around an electronic dictionary in case they run into a character they do not recognize.
This dictionary is small enough to fit in your pocket. It eliminates the need to carry around a heavy and cumbersome bound-volume dictionary.
It can be used by native English speakers heading to Japan, or native Japanese speakers heading to an English speaking country. My friend works in a restaurant in Washington D.C... she has seen many Japanese customers come in using this model dictionary. It is very helpful in this situation, as the dictionary provides pronunciation (audio feedback) on the English words. This is where pronunciation is needed, due to the vast amounts of irregularities in the English language. Japanese pronunciation isn't really necessary, as the Kana are given (and Romaji), and they only have a single way to be pronounced: If you know the Kana, you can pronounce every Japanese word written in Kana.
The vocabulary is obviously not as extensive as more expensive models. But it has enough to get you through most tasks. There are lists of common questions/comments in various situations: At the airport, in a restaurant, walking the streets, etc.
There are a lot of 'extra' features on this dictionary. These include: foreign currency converter, calculators, clocks/alarms, calenders and schedulers.
They key thing that differentiates this electronic dictionary from others I looked at is the price. The newer Canon dictionaries run ~$300+. This is a lot of money to put into a small electronic item that can easily be lost.
This dictionary also comes with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty.
PROS:
- Inexpensive.
- Good for a beginner/intermediate learner of either Japanese or English.
- Search by Kanji through radicals or stroke orders.
- Spell checker allows you easy location of words you can't spell.
- Manual is in English and Japanese (some other models just have one or the other).
- 'Extra Features'.
- Phrases for common situations.
CONS:
- Not as many words as the more expensive models.
- Can have some 'false' definitions (these are present in all electronic dictionaries I have used due to the ambiguities arising from translating Japanese to English - just look at Zero Wing ^_^).
Conclusion: Overall, this is a good dictionary. If you are a beginner/intermediate student of Japanese or English and are planning on traveling to a foreign country, you will need to pick up an electronic dictionary. This model, EJ400T, should be your choice if you don't have a ton of money to spend, or if you have a tendency to misplace small electronics ;) There ARE better models (some Canons) - hence the 4 star rating - but they are all in a much higher price range (~$300+) |
Ouch
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| Review Date: November 24, 2004 |
| Reviewer: G. T West, Blaine, Minnesota United States |
| This dictionary sucks. I bought it last summer and it did me little good. The definitions are usually only one word, the max being 3. They lump all of the translations together, so you kinda just pick and choose with no real idea of the difference between homonyms. There's no way to actually look up Kanji but you can search with them (the only plus), however, some Kanji aren't listed under the proper radical, and you must search through lists and lists of Kanji by stroke order. I highly recommend the Canon G50. Although it is expensive, it contains extensive definitions of hundreds of thousands of words, as well as an extensive Kanji dictionary (however, Kanji definitions, meanings, etc are all written in Kana). The G50 comes with an English manual and you can switch it to an English interface so it's perfect for English speakers. |
Not a reliable product
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| Review Date: January 12, 2007 |
| Reviewer: R. Miyanaga, |
Unfortunately, this product did not meet our expectations.
I'm a native Japanese speaker and I bought this product for my husband. I could tell right away that whoever recorded Japanese words for this product was not a native Japanese speaker. Further, Japanese translations they had were not always correct. This product was a total miss. |
Total Disappointment
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| Review Date: March 8, 2006 |
| Reviewer: M. Mahony, Montana |
| When I purchased this dictionary, I figured that I was getting a good deal on a good investment, but this was not the case first. From the get go the product is dubious - The user manual contains only a minimal amount of information, not enough to guide a user through using the dictionary fully. Next off, the keyboard was more than a little faulty- Some keys would take several concise punches to register. Also, the text input method for Japanese was different than that of a regular computer, which slowed me down more than once. The English to Japanese translation was good and contained more than enough vocabulary for anyone to communicate effectively in Japanese, however, as a previous poster noted, it lumps all the translations together without any examples or context. However, the largest problem I had was the dictionary's complete incompetence when translating from Japanese to English - For this it was completely useless, it was as though the Japanese to English half of the dictionary contained no simple verbs or nouns; when looking up simple words (Words I knew I could find in the English to Japanese portion), they simply did not exist. Also, when I called Ectaco technical support to see if there was a user error on my part, the representative didn't offer any help, but simply said to send it back. I didn't have to think about that too long. This dictionary is terrible, if you need an translating dictionary, I'd recommend paying the extra amount and going with a Canon model, or even a paperback dictionary. |
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