Palm OS software for learning Japanese?

[Jezlyn]

Does anyone know of any good Palm OS software to learn Japanese? Let me be more specific... I've seen these Canon Wordtank handhelds that have various dictionaries and ways to translate kanji (click here (http://www.jlist.com/PG/STUDYAIDS/STWT_1.html) to see what I'm talking about).

These Wordtanks are pretty expensive, and I thought it'd be more efficient to just get some program to use on the Palm (I say Palm generically because my bf has a Garmin PDA and I'm mainly inquiring for him, though I'm interested, too). I've seen a few shareware and free software for Palms, but they don't seem to have the dictionary and kanji translation functionality. They're more like flash cards or something simpler.

Anyone know of any software similar to the Canon Wordtanks? Or am I just going to have to save up for one of the Wordtanks? :)

Thanks in advance for any info!

[kf6gpe]

I don't have URLs -- I'm on someone else's machine --- but I love the following:

- Dokusha is a very good and free combined dictionary and Japanese e-text reader. While it's a little dated (no widescreen/landscape support, or even VFS support), I find it indispensible. If you're short on RAM, it works with PowerRun from a Memory Stick.

- KingKanji works well for studying kanji. I've had minor issues on some Clies, but the details escape me. I'd try the demo if you're interested in studying Kanji.

- CJKOS is a nice addition if you plan on taking notes about your studies.

To be honest, after studying for a year and using Dokusha quite a bit, I am still tempted by a Canon Word Tank, although I've not plunked down the dough. Dokusha does has most of what I want well enough that it just doesn't seem worth the money, or carrying an extra device!

[winexprt]

I really love and have used a program called "Kanji Hanabi" for a few years now. Looks great on my NX80V and has helped me learn alot of kanji. But Dokusha is probably the best if you intend on using it as a dictionary as it has an exhaustive database.
Here is the URL for Hanabi: http://www.neth.com

[Royaljester]

I'd also recommend Dokusha and also this awsome kanji study program called Learn Alpha:
http://www.sunlabs.com/~shirriff

Not only can you study Japanese, but several other languages.

Dokusha's Japanese->English works well, but English->Japanese takes forever to lookup a word.

I've looked very hard and have not found any other good Japanese/English dicitonaries. I've tried one that uses CJKOS and another that uses BDicty, but both of these dictionaries were wrong and useless. They were obviously mass compiled along with hundreds of other dictionaries (Polish/English, Greek/English) by people who didn't know a word of actual Japanese. =P

If anyone has encountered a complete, fast, and correct English->Japanese dictionary for Clie, please inform!

[bakerybob]

I've been using a program called Supermemo as a way to remember words - it's a simple flashcard program, which you make your own flashcards for, and then it sets up tests for you every day. If you get the answer right (self-scored), then it tests you in, say, a week. If you get the answer wrong, it'll test you again the next day. I used it with CJKOS to study over 3000 words in a year. You can get it here:
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&sid=B62E7AF1-89F9-4A62-8681F9B820075D7E&prodID=6338
for $16.
There's also a companion PC software available here
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&sid=B62E7AF1-89F9-4A62-8681F9B820075D7E&prodID=46917
which lets you do the tedious data entry on your computer. The Supermemo website here
http://www.mapletop.com/supermemo/databases/index.html
has a whole bunch of free databases for download, including a few specifically for Japanese study (although using romaji script). The only bad thing about the software is that it hasn't been updated in ages, so it doesn't support hi-res, color, etc. But in terms of educational benefit, it's a winner. I'm thinking of updating it myself, if they don't hurry up...

Evan

[bakerybob]

This is for high-end study, but there's also a Japanese program for studying words called Hi-Mem, which has several English-Japanese databases. It was originally designed for Japanese people to study English, but it works just fine the other way around too.
Japanese link: http://www.muchy.com/review/himem.html
Databases: http://muchy.com/developer/hiro_ish.html


Other advice: buy a Japanese Clie. They all come with a full English-Japanese dictionary either built in (for new models) or included on the CD (for older models).

Oh, before I forget, Dokusha also has a PC companion called Dokusha Converter, that can be used to easily create files to read with Dokusha from anything you find on the Internet.
http://www.geocities.jp/roysaintjames/dokuconv.htm

Evan

[Jezlyn]

Thanks for all of your replies! I will definitely check out these suggestions and pass along the info to my bf. :)

I may have to bite the bullet, though, and get a Canon Wordtank. They are expensive, but they have everything well-integrated. But these other programs should tide me over in the meantime! :)

[BMEngineer]

Now I can learn japanese on my Palm!

[awawa212]

OK, coming three years late to the thread, Dokusha is great for reading Japanese text documents (but I have constant trouble with it often failing to startup on my TX (if lucky, reinstalling will fix it, but usually it means a hard reset and reinstall of everything)) that are EUC-encoded.

PAdict (http://padict.sourceforge.net/) is excellent for everything else. Fast J-E, E-J lookup. Search kanji by various methods. Animated drawing of kanji. Flashcard function. Three databases, including the super one of over 9M in size! Handwritten kanji recognition that's reasonably good!

Right now I have both CJKOS and J-OS installed. CJKOS is great because you can turn it off and on without resetting. It also, if you install the right file, converts Unicode into SJIS, so you can open Japanese Excel files into DocumentsToGo (as I occasionally do). Unfortunately, CJKOS' Japanese input is terrible (only hiragana or katakana), so I use J-OS for that, which requires reseting into Japanese mode (then later back into English) but then you can input kanji directly! Wow!

Problems I tend to encounter with CJKOS and/or J-OS installed:
Their mere presence on my TX causes StockManager not to be able display historical charts.
Their mere presence seems to cause Bluetooth eventually to fail over time, if you often turn Bluetooth off. Eventually I lose all OBEX push services (no more BTing files to the TX...) then get a hard reset (if lucky) or endless startup-crash looping. Leaving BT on all the time seems to prevent this problem.
When on, they cause SplashMoney payees to be cumulatively added (a minor annoyance, as you can always delete multiple "McDonald's" or whatever from the payee list) and EGP Clipboard to crash with certain actions. I've encountered other problems that I cannot recall, with the result that I don't like leaving CJKOS or J-OS on all the time (though I wish I could).
I swear (without direct evidence but plenty of personal experience) that they both cause a lot of cumulative file corruption, especially of the Palm OS. Programs slowly begin to quit working properly and usually a hard reset becomes necessary after 2-3 months. I then tediously reinstall everything fresh, because using a previous backup always (in my experience) means reintroducing the corruption (and I've still not been able to determine which files that get backed are truly corrupted), since the corruption seems to appear before you realize and thus have probably backed up corrupted files many times before you realize something is seriously wrong and it's now too late to identify the culprit.

I'm about to try using PowerRUN in the hopes of getting Dokusha to work again, but I'm not optimistic. If lucky, the TX will let me wait until Christmas Vacation, when I can do a hard reset and reinstall everything again.

Increasingly I feel that the best thing is, if you really need Japanese on your PDA, to buy two PDAs: one PDA with CJKOS and J-OS and the absolute minimum of applications that require Japanese ability, and one PDA, English-only, for all your other applications, including Dokusha, KingKanji, and PAdict. I'm looking to do just this with my old T2 as the Japanese only device, but I can't recall whether it has enough RAM to allow me to do this.

[PocketPowerPC]

I use Dokusha & PADict and I'm all set for just about everything.

Too bad the J/E Dictionary that came with Japanese CLIEs won't run on anything else. With those 3 programs running, you'll never need anything else.

[awawa212]

I'll have to look into a Japanese CLIE. Having a proper Japanese OS PDA would be rather useful to me, especially if it's Palm OS.

[DanT]

I repair TH55s and have 2 TH55 Japanese motherboards for even exchange with English (US or UK). I can convert your TH55/U, TH55/E1, TH55/E2, TH55/H, etc., to TH55/J for free of charge. You just need to pay for postage both ways.

As you see below, TH55 reds were only built for japanese (with TH55/J motherboard). I've converted 2 of them to TH55/E1 red and TH55/U red. Now I have 2 TH55/J motherboards in stock.

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/2949Red_E1.JPG
http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/2949Red_Sena.JPG
http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/2949My_TH55s.JPG

[Zappler]

Does anyone know of any good Palm OS software to learn Japanese?

Thanks in advance for any info!

best way to study japanese is probably by watching lots of, lots of animes!

just kidding.

dunno, but learning by doing sounds best anyway. thats how i got a grip of properly playing poker!

[rintintin]

sound good, zappler, at least in theory ; )

but where the heck are you supposed to find enough people for a good poker game?! and most games i've played up until now, didn't really teach you well..but may be it's my mistake, maybe i havn't been looking thoroughly enough..

[Zappler]

sorry, didn't want to sound rude. i was lucky, because a friend of mine told me about this site: http://www.pokerstrategy.org.uk/

they show you how to play

[jreagles16]

I was wondering when I read this thread are there any other good learn a language apps on palm for any other language than japnesses?


thanks for the replies.