dictionary questions

[anp925]

hello all,
found this site, and hopefully someone will be able to help me out.
I'm looking to replace my electronic dictionary, but I'm not sure which is the best one for my purposes. I've had a canon wordtank IDF 3000 for more than 4 or 5 years now, but it's starting to frustrate me. My current strategy for improving my vocabulary is to try reading japanese books (currently harry potter ...). So I am constantly looking up japanese words to find out their meanings. The problem I'm having is that many of the words I look up are not in the japanese-english dictionary, but solely in the japanese-japanese dictionary. It is cumbersome to use the jump function on all the words in the japanese definition just so I can find out the meaning of the original word I looked up. So I'm looking for electronic dictionaries with better japanese-english dictionaries. I know most of the them have a high emphasis on the english-japanese ones, but I'm hoping someone has stumbled accross a good one for us non-native japanese speakers.

inceidentally, my paper dictionaries are the progressive shogakukan ones. Are these in any electronic form that anyone knows about?
thanks,
-adam

[Kates]

I <3 my Canon G50 to death. There's also a G55 now, I hear. You'll have to Google on where to get them, though... I got mine in Akihabara. ^^;

They use the Reader's and New College dictionaries for E->J/J->E (respectively). Though I will say that there still are several words in the J->J dictionary that are not in my J->E... but I come across them rarely. Maybe my word-searches are different from yours... or maybe my dictionary really kicks as much butt as I think it does. ^^;

Good luck, ne?

[njt]

or you could just use the net, there are plenty net dictionaries that are free and work quite well

http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/index.html?kind=je&mode=0
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/
http://nihongoresources.com/

just to name a few .

[anp925]

thanks for the info.
I'm looking at the canon g55. it seems like it'll do the trick. If anyone out there is using it, please let me know what you think. the online dictionaries are pretty good I know, but I like to read away from the computer ...
I'm also not in japan anymore, so if anyone knows the cheapest place to order one of these from (aside from ebay), that info would be much appreciated.

lastly, kates in kalamazoo, do you know brian carry?? I know it's a long shot, but he's a friend I know from kalamazoo...

[Kates]

I don't think so. ^^; WMU student, I would guess, is he? I graduated in 2003, so... ^^;

[cptnemo]

Bump
I am also looking into buying an electronic dictionary, something with a bit more advanced vocabulary.

I've heard good things about the Canon G50 & G55. Does anyone else recommend these or a different kind?

What about the Sharp models? the PW-9700 had a large J->E dictionary

[Kates]

I chose the G50 over a few other models that were available in Akihabara. I really like it--the only complaint I have is with the kanji dictionary:

When you look up a kanji you can push a button to get common kanji-compounds that the kanji is found in. A very helpful feature, and pretty standard. The only complaint I have about the G50's list of kanji-compounds is that only words that START with the kanji you chose are listed.

For example, let's say you look up 山 (yama). The kanji-compound list looks like this:
山陰　（サンイン）
山果　（サンカ）
山歌　（サンカ）
山郭　（サンカク）
山公　（サンコウ）
and so on. Words like 沢山　（たくさん） and 銅山　（どうざん） -- where the 山 kanji comes next/last -- are not included.

This isn't a horrible deal--not enough to make me think a different dictionary was a better buy--since you can just search for the first kanji in an unknown compound. (Though if you recognize the second kanji, but not the first, searching the long way IS kind of annoying.)

When I went to buy, I researched online about the different styles there were, so I would suggest doing that as well. Good luck ^_^

[Harisenbon]

the G50 is no longer sold in Japan, as it has been replaced by the G55. If you can find the G50 I highly recommend purchasing it, as the G55 has a loading screen whenever you turn it on. It drives me nuts. I believe Clay still sells the G50 on his site, though.