were electronic dictionaries a bigger deal in japan than elsewhere? as far as i know, in america they were never anything more than novelties even before everyone had a computer in their pocket. i did a little googling and it seems like they were/are more common in japan but couldn't find any reference as to why. my only guess is that it has something to do with keeping track of kanji but in the 80s they probably weren't even capable of displaying kanji so /shrug
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Yes! Another big deal in Japan is (yes, still is) translation devices. While some people there move over to Google Translate, many old-fashioned ones still rock those gadgets that look like voice recorders but with a screen, and translate your dialogue. Japan, as a country in general, is known for not so good English skills among the population: as I understand many people don't really see a need to learn that language. Especially given that those devices to deal with foreigners are available.
There are many gadgets (including specialized ones) in Japan that have been produced for the domestic market only.
They were a bigger deal. I started learning Japanese when the first Iphone came out and spent quite some time in Japan when the Android phones were a new thing. Internet on the phones was very limited.
Dictionaries existed on the phones, but the usability was non-existent. Even worse if you had to look for a word you didn't know how to read.
The electronic dictionaries had great writing detection and cross-referencing between language and informational dictionaries etc. At the time they were awesome. One electronic dictionary could contain dozens of dictionaries of various topics, which probably was convenient for Japanese themselves (and not just language learners).
Of course nowadays you can do the same on a phone, but there was a period when you couldn't.
These dictionaries are a godsend for figuring out what a given kanji means, and how to pronounce it.
There are around 40 000 kanji characters. Most have various meanings depending on context. And depending on the context, a character is spoken in entirety different ways.
Honestly, english is not much better there; i'm good at reading and writing it but have trouble with pronounciation. And lot's of words with double or tripple meaning. At least in german-ish you know how to say it by reading it. Chuchichäschtli is a Chuchichäschtli and not a Küchenkasten.
As a non native English speaker, the pronunciation is hell. I love me some Scottish/English accents but they are so different to the American accents, which are also very diverse (not to mention the small differences in vocabulary and spelling). Since I consume all sorts of different English contents, with my french accent on top, my pronunciation is all over the place.
Though tough, through thorough thought, you can learn how to properly pronounce English words.
The Japanese writing system is idiotic, and it's impossible to guess what a word means or how to pronounce it just by looking at it.
Let me guess, you don't watch リック·アンド·モーティ.
Well... Yeah. Everybody's using their phones instead.
I still own an electronic Japanese dictionary but haven't used it in about 10 years. I have a dictionary app on my phone that I use nearly every day.
About the only thing the electronic version still does better than any of the apps I've tried, surprisingly, is handwritten kanji recognition, I think perhaps because it comes with a little stylus that makes it more precise.