Nintendo DS, kanji dictionary · 2006-04-14 19:47 by Damian, 2 comment(s)
Update: The excerpt got lost for a while, restored it.
Time for some Nintendo goodness, so today I went to pick up the new dictionary software for Nintendo DS, Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten (漢字そのまま楽引辞典） to see if it is at all useful. And I have to say I’m impressed! This $35 cartridge lets me do some stuff that my $300 dedicated Wordtank V80 can’t pull off. There are a few catches, but it’s still very useful. Read on to find out more.
What is it?
Essentially a dictionary for Nintendo DS that lets you input kanji and kana directly with your stylus. It lets you look up words English->Japanese (Genius G3, 95,000 entries), Japanese->English (Genius Gje2) and an all Japanese dictionary (Meikyō Kokugo Jiten, 70,000 entries). Since it is designed for the Japanese market, the J->E dictionary also contains pronunciations for a good portion of the English words.
There are also quiz modes to test English and Japanese skills, more on that later.
Basic functions
While the included Genius JE and EJ dictionaries are the same as used in several electronic dictionaries, the ability to jump between different dictionaries is very limited compared to pretty much any dedicated piece from Canon or Seiko. For instance, if I’m currently in the JE dictionary, I can only select English words and jump to the EJ dictionary. The Meikyō dictionary does not allow jumping at all.
Ok, so the search functions are not all that great, but there is one function that makes the DS dictionary shine – it lets you use the stylus to input kanji directly into the dictionary search. The much more expensive Wordtank V80 only lets you do this for searches in the kanji dictionary. This is very useful when you’re looking up compounds where you don’t know the reading at all. With the V80 I usually need to look up the kanji one by one and then guess which readings are used for the actual compound. The DS lets me do this in one go.
Handwriting recognition is adequate if you know the correct stroke order. I haven’t made any extensive tests, but my initial feeling is that the Wordtank V80 seems to be more forgiving of incorrect stroke order. I’ll try to check this some more later and get back with more information.
The search history is easy to navigate using the shoulder buttons, it seems to have at least 25 steps, which is more than enough.
Quiz modes
Quickly skipping the English parts, the Japanese quiz mode is actually not bad at all. There are 80 different tests, ranging from testing kanji for countries to drilling kanji with same reading but different meaning. Be warned though, these tests are not for beginners, they are actually very challenging. Still, a good way to test yourself and get some practice.
Other extras
There are a few extra functions accessible from the main menu, such as a world clock with a map, a calculator and a basic alarm clock. There’s also a PictoChat with kanji input capability. You can save bookmarks and test scores, so you can see if you improve.
Compared to a Canon Wordtank V80
The Wordtank V80 from Canon is the only dictionary from Canon that allows kanji input by stylus, so a quick comparison may be in order.
DS dictionary, pros:
- price
- same JE and EJ dictionaries
- word search by kanji
- English pronunciation
- very readable, especially on a DS Lite
- easy to use search history
- useful quiz modes
- world clock
- calendar
Wordtank V80, pros:
- vastly superior jumping abilities
- superior Japanese dictionary (Super Daijirin vs. Meikyō)
- has Chinese<->Japanese, Chinese<->English, as well as dedicated English and Kanji dictionaries
- lets you use stylus for jumping
- has a normal keyboard too
- has stroke order animations
For the price you pay this is actually a really good deal, provided that you already have a Nintendo DS. If you’re studying Japanese and already own a DS, you definitely want this. If not you’re probably better off getting a real electronic dictionary first. For some insight and comparisons of recent models I recommend taking a look at Quinlan Faris’ site or the various sites selling Japanese goods, such as smartimports.net.
To get the DS dictionary, I would suggest you order it from Lik-Sang, they usually provide very quick deliveries.
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I got this too and am very happy with it. I was hoping the Jump feature would bring the meaning display down to the touch screen and let me tap any word to jump to it. The English-only jumping is disappointing but since you can just re-write and input kanji you see in the meaning, it’s not too bad. Might even be considered writing practice!
Did you know that if you’ve registered both the previous version of this software (with no Kanji input) and this one on the Club Nintendo site, you will be sent a little customised DS card case to hole both cards in? I bought the old version thinking it had kanji input, and traded it fairly quickly, but the registration still stands! Details here: http://club.nintendo.jp/cmp/rakubiki/index.html
— CTU Kyoto 2006-04-14 17:49 #
Thanks for the review – will definitely pick up a copy and give it a try. Hopefully it can recognize the Kanji even if you’re not an expert on stroke order – if not, maybe it will be motivation to get better at stroke order.
— nTokyo 2006-05-10 23:43 #