Do I need a denshi Jisho (electric dictionary?)
If you just start learning basic Japanese, the answer would be NO, you don’t need one. A free smartphone dictionary apps and sites such as Tangorin or Jisho will be enough.
Why not?
Because the electronic dictionary (or called denshi jisho in Japanese) that you’re gonna buy is actually targeted for Japanese users to learn English. Therefore ALL the interface, except for the alphabetic keyboard, is written in Japanese. If you have no idea at all about Japanese, it will be a disaster to use it. And you will end up with a lot of headaches (and also heartaches, full of regret for ever buying this dictionary)
If you just have learn at least N4-N3 level Japanese, and you want to practice reading a lot of Japanese books. The answer would be GO FOR IT! Because you will need to expand your vocabularies and having a ready to use & super complete dictionary will be very convenient to you. But becareful of the type of denshi jisho you choose since some of them are basically useless...
The best dictionary out there is the Kenkyuusha green goddess dict. It’s the only Japanese-English dictionary you need. Remember those words/phrase you can’t find in the smartphone apps dictionary/internet? Yeah, you might find it here. There’a also a sentence example so you can understand the context.
But with 3000 pages, it will be very hard to carry around. And that’s where denshi jisho shines! As a special note, the price of this dictionary is almost the same with a denshi jisho! Lol
Perk of a denshi jisho:
• Able to cross reference meaning of word & kanji with “jump” function
• Search for kanji with handwriting
• Using only 2 rechargeable AA battery with 120+ hours of use per charge (very convenient!)
Casio Ex-word is recommended since it have all the function mentioned above and some more stuff. You can review the complete article here
Note that not all denshi jisho hold the kenkyuusha dictionary. Even in the Casio Ex-word series, only 9800/10000 series of EX-WORD have it. The lower version only hold the progressive & genius dict .
If you’re confuse here’s some link to help:
(Model D) XD-D9800 // (Model U) XD-U9800 // (Model K) XD-K9800
*The K model is newer than the U and D. It doensn’t have the little screen below but you can still use top screen to write kanji
If you’re low on budget, a pocket size of kenkyuusha dict , although not as complete, could be a good alternative! Happy learning ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡
