Accurate alternatives to EDICT?

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Reply #26 - 2010 May 27, 5:01 pm
resolve Member
From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

You can get a portable PC version of the Goddess for about 16,000yen. It's in EPWING format which can be read on OSX/Linux/Windows and on the iStuff with an EPWING viewer app.

Reply #27 - 2010 May 27, 5:30 pm
caivano Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2010-03-14 Posts: 705

Groot wrote:

Thanks for the many suggestions.  Caivano, an electronic dictionary sounds interesting, but as I already have an iPad, I'm not inclined to add another device to my arsenal!  Still, I'm curious which one you use, and how it accepts handwriting -- do you have to use a stylus?  Does it "talk" to you?

I know what you mean, I have too many devices as it is :$
I have a http://www.sharp.co.jp/brain/lineup/pw-ac890/ and you use a stylus on a pad thing and yes it can talk. most handy thing is probably just the history though. I can go through later and add all the words I looked up whilst reading to anki. I'm pretty sure ipad apps would have this too.

Reply #28 - 2010 May 27, 5:52 pm
Tobberoth Member
From: Sweden Registered: 2008-08-25 Posts: 3364

Groot wrote:

Thanks for the many suggestions.  Caivano, an electronic dictionary sounds interesting, but as I already have an iPad, I'm not inclined to add another device to my arsenal!  Still, I'm curious which one you use, and how it accepts handwriting -- do you have to use a stylus?  Does it "talk" to you?

I think I'd be more interested in an app for the iPad.  Katsuo, both of your suggestions look promising, and while the Green Goddess is pricey ($105), at least it's not as pricey as the print version.  I might opt for the much less-pricey Wisdom instead, especially as it looks like it might be optimized for the iPad, and not just a blown-up (and therefore fuzzy) version of an iPod/iPhone app.   

Tobberoth, thanks for the link to the yahoo page.  It looks nice, but is there a J-E portion?  I still need J-E at my stage.  smile

和英 means J-E. It's made for Japanese wanting to learn English, but it works just as well either way.

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Reply #29 - 2010 May 27, 11:09 pm
BlackMarsh Member
Registered: 2005-10-12 Posts: 106

Javizy wrote:

Some of the stupidest English usage I have heard has been from my girlfriend after using Eijiro's J-E lookup.

One of my Japanese friends told me to my great surprise one day that he often disembarks one station early in order to jerk off before work. After getting over the inital shock of my friend's admission I wondered if ALC was to blame as I knew he often used it. Sure enough:

http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E7%84%A1%E9%A7%84 … %99/UTF-8/

Reply #30 - 2010 May 28, 7:29 pm
Groot Member
Registered: 2010-03-18 Posts: 157

So do all the dictionaries for the iPhone and iPad rely on the device's limited kanji recognition?  The dictionaries I've used apparently use the Chinese input for the iPhone.  Is Wisdom or the Green Goddess any different?

Reply #31 - 2010 May 28, 10:04 pm
Katsuo M.O.D.
From: Tokyo Registered: 2007-02-06 Posts: 887 Website

I think some EDICT-based dictionaries have their own handwriting recognition. E.g. Shinkanji-search-free (This is part of the main Shinkanji app, is free, and just demonstrates the input methods including handwriting. The complete app is 700 yen).

@Is Wisdom or the Green Goddess any different?
I don't think any of the well-known J-E dictionaries have their own handwriting recognition at present. Monokakido, the company that makes the Wisdom and Daijirin apps, has recently added handwriting input to the latter, so I wonder if they will extend that to their Wisdom app as well. Maybe they think the Wisdom app will be used mostly for E-J and therefore it's not so necessary. We could bombard them with begging letters.

Of course if you also have the Daijirin you could write in that, then copy & paste to the other app. It's time-consuming, but would work.

Reply #32 - 2010 May 29, 12:16 am
Groot Member
Registered: 2010-03-18 Posts: 157

Thanks for pointing me to Shinkanji, Katsuo.  That handwriting recognition is much better!  Now if only it would let me write an entire compound instead of just a single kanji -- then it would really be great.  As is, I can quickly retrieve a single kanji, but then I have to wade through a long list of unsorted compounds and hope I find the right one (if it's there at all).  At least Shinkanji can quickly give me a reading for the first character in a compound; but then again, I'm getting better at guessing readings anyway. 

It's frustrating.  Heisig has given me the skill to write out 3 or 4 characters very fast, in correct stroke order; it's a shame none of these iPhone/iPad apps let me use that skill!  Those that permit one to input more than one kanji ("Japanese") have bad handwriting recognition; and those that have good handwriting recognition ("Shinkanji") only permit me to write one kanji.  Where's the app that lets us do both?  smile

Reply #33 - 2010 May 29, 2:37 am
chamcham Member
Registered: 2005-11-11 Posts: 1444

bucko wrote:

Javizy wrote:

Some of the stupidest English usage I have heard has been from my girlfriend after using Eijiro's J-E lookup.

One of my Japanese friends told me to my great surprise one day that he often disembarks one station early in order to jerk off before work. After getting over the inital shock of my friend's admission I wondered if ALC was to blame as I knew he often used it. Sure enough:

http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E7%84%A1%E9%A7%84 … %99/UTF-8/

HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

That's the funniest thing I've read all day.
Wow. Imagine if Japanese girls started to use "jerk off" in the way.
Scary...... :-p

Last edited by chamcham (2010 May 29, 10:30 am)

Reply #34 - 2010 May 31, 6:27 am
Daichi Member
From: Washington Registered: 2009-02-04 Posts: 450

I dunno how good they are but http://en.wiktionary.org/ and http://ja.wiktionary.org/ .

Since they are wiki based, they could only get better over time.

Last edited by Daichi (2010 May 31, 7:11 am)

Reply #35 - 2010 May 31, 7:00 am
pm215 Member
From: UK Registered: 2008-01-26 Posts: 1354

Daichi wrote:

I dunno how good they are but http://en.wiktionary.org/ and http://jp.wiktionary.org/ .

Since they are wiki based, they could only get better over time.

Well, jp.wiktionary.org says "this wiki does not exist yet" so it can scarcely become less useful :-)

In any case, EDICT has a fairly easy to use process for submitting corrections and new entries, so it also gets better over time, and it has a huge head start here...

Reply #36 - 2010 May 31, 7:11 am
Daichi Member
From: Washington Registered: 2009-02-04 Posts: 450

pm215 wrote:

Well, jp.wiktionary.org says "this wiki does not exist yet" so it can scarcely become less useful :-)

Doh, that's cuz it's http://ja.wiktionary.org . But anyway, the Japanese one gives you definitions in Japanese. You can type japanese (or just about any other language) words into the English wiktionary for english definitions.

Last edited by Daichi (2010 May 31, 8:05 am)