Tofugu - Latest Comments in Jim Breen on the iPhone

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:07:29 -0000

I'm kind of put off that iJisho claims you can use the Chinese handwriting input to enter kanji without mentioning that it doesn't work very well for a lot of kanji, and it doesn't work at all for many others, even some very common ones. If you buy the app expecting to be able to enter kanji by handwriting, you're going to be frustrated. Simply put, Chinese hanzi and Japanese kanji have been evolving separately for 1300+ years, so the characters aren't all the same anymore. Some kanji, even common ones, don't exist in Chinese, and others have a different stroke order (confounding the handwriting system if you enter the correct Japanese stroke order). It's a good thing to use, but you can't depend on it for finding kanji, because a frustratingly high percentage of the time, it just won't work.

For some of the common kanji that aren't in Chinese and more detail on why they're not, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Try entering the kanji for, e.g., common kanji like the ones for black, Buddha, and the "ki" in "genki" (and thousands of other words) on your iPhone.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:56:27 -0000

Sorry--click on my name to get to the page with the links to the app and the free dictionaries and instructions.

And, yup, Prof. Breen is indeed a cool guy.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:55:11 -0000

A much better version of Edict is the customized one at JLT. For Japanese to English it's the same as the standard, searchable by kanji or kana. But it's been heavily edited to be much better when searching English-to-Japanese. For example, with the standard Edict, when you look up "horse," you get a lot of irrelevant results up front--"uma," the actual word for horse, comes up only after scrolling through quite a few screens--it's around the 40th result. In the JLT version of Edict, it's the first. Plus there's a version of Jim Breen's Kanjidic and Enamdict on the JLT site--and Kanjidic has been altered to show you stroke orders for all 6355 kanji, and to let you look up kanji directly (by entering kanji), by reading, and by SKIP order. And there's a dictionary that shows you how to conjugate every verb in Edict ("what's the past causative of 'hasamu'?"), and to enter a conjugated verb to find out what tense and what verb it is. Plus you can add any dictionary in the standard EPWING format (Koujien, Daijirin, Kenkyusha, and a special version of Eijiro with yomigana added for every kanji compound, Genius, etc.). Morever, the app that runs all these dictionaries, EBPocket, doesn't have any of the problems you describe above--it works well. Visit the page below for links to the app ($4.99), to download the free dictionaries, and for instructions for replacing the version of Edict that comes with the app (which has the same E-to-J problems you mention above) with the free JLT dictionaries. Disclosure: I make the free dictionaries mentioned; I don't have anything to do with the app.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

George Tanaka — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:27:18 -0000

It's unfair to Jim Breen to say his Japanese-English dictionary, isn't good when looking up English words. He makes no claim that it's an English-Japanese dictionary. As a Japanese-English dictionary, it has many advantages over many of the commercial dictionaries. Anyone who lives in Japan can easily see this.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

germanicus24 — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:34:45 -0000

When you use this application you have to be connected to wi-fi or to pay for internet usage with your phone provider?

Thanks

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Jomann — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:52:17 -0000

turns out kotoba is really great app too, and you dont need wifi to use it, its all saved on your phone or touch, and it has the same features plus more.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

benwulf — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:47:39 -0000

Another Kanji reference and study app for the iphone and ipod touch which is just out today in the appstore is:
shinkanji [url]http://shinkanji.bcerrina.com[/url]
(appstore install link: [url]http://phobos.apple.com/Web...[/url]).
This contains some pretty unique features to navigate kanji structures and promise to include look up in the edict dictionary from Jim Breen (although this is not yet implemented)

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Kit Born — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:45:23 -0000

I am part of the team that made the app. You can find out more at http://www.cslmedia.org/iphone

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Roxanne — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:42:30 -0000

I LOVE Jim Breen's dictionary!

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Izeyhec (Izaiya Muze) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:02:53 -0000

aaaaa the iphone it is a nice phone i really should up grade from my blackberry lol but for now im happy with what i got but the dictionary would come in handy in class and when doin home work on the road

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Izeyhec (Izaiya Muze) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:01:35 -0000

lol this is so true when i go down town i see them left and right lol

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

ch1ka — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:17:44 -0000

Ah ok, i'll definately search around and find something - thanks for the help, really appreciate it.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

emiko — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:29:30 -0000

ah! your sister is sooo lucky!

i loved the kaji concept too, i was wondering how the ordering was going to be!

my favorite part was when they lit the torch, that poor guy had to run a lot though and there was NO GROUND!

i was really impressed! i don't know if anyone will be able to surpass it!

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Viet — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:16:16 -0000

Yes, it was amazing. Zhang Yimou put together a really good show.

I liked how the countries were introduce based on the number of strokes to write their name in Kanji.

My sister was at the show. Sent me a bragging email earlier today :(

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

emiko — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:03:18 -0000

omg! this is way off topic, but did anyone else see the olympic opening? it was amazing!

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

lawnmowerlatte — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:43:40 -0000

Like heartlessangel said, yesasia.com has them for sale.

I like this one (http://tinyurl.com/57uucz). It's a little hard to understand the interface at first, but as you get used to it, you'll find it's very powerful. Great for looking up kanji. However, you have to write it in the correct stroke order, which is hard for beginners.

If you want to practice correct stroke order, try this one (http://tinyurl.com/69oqpc).
頑張って！
(Good luck!)

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

heartlessangel — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:53:47 -0000

I have one for my ds also that I love they have alot of dif versions out there I dnt remember were I got mine frm but U can get it off of yesasia.com I love nintendo by the way cause with the ds there is no region restrictions so you can use a ds game frm ne where sorry I work at a game store so I get a lil excited lol

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

10khend9 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:02:09 -0000

My dictionary is called Kanji Sonomama DS Rakubiki Jiten, and it is amazing. Follow Erin's advice on how to get one like it.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

rajivp — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:34:50 -0000

I have kanji flip, a great kanji flash card program for the iPhone. 2.99 US$ only
I also have a wonderful kanji dictionary for the DS. Can draw the characters, english to Jap to English. No multisearch but great. Can't wait for a stand alone dictionary for the iPhone...

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

SputnikSweetie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:21:40 -0000

http://www.tofugu.com/2007/...

I would suggest searching around online for the games mentioned in the above article. I'm sure a lot of sites (Amazon, YesAsia etc) have it.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

ch1ka — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:01:52 -0000

Hey there =]
you can get dictionarys on the DS ...i hope your talking about nintendo DS...
if you are, then please could you tell me where to get the DS dictionary from?!
i dont have an iphone (and i always carry my DS! haha)

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

ch1ka — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:00:30 -0000

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

koichi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:42:52 -0000

definitely

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

Viet — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:28:50 -0000

The restriction is probably the music industry doing.

Re: Jim Breen on the iPhone

koichi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:50:07 -0000

Probably not their rules. Apple would never give up the opportunity to
not make more money :)