gogoNavi Japanese <> English app good for
Thank U for this marvelous app. Learning Japanese its a great aid, finding words.
I love this app!
Istja
Good dictionary. I can easily search English words and get a list of japanese translations including usage. The Japanese is shown only in kanji and hiragana though so understanding hiragana and katakana is required. But otherwise, it is a super nice app!
Very useful: it works in both directions and even accepts voice inputs. All you have to do is enable the Japanese keyboards.
I like this app a lot. Yes, it uses the same dictionary as JDict (EDict), but I think overall the results it returns is cleaner than JDicts. For now Im going to keep both apps on my iPod and thoroughly test them both. Some things to keep in mind...
1) If you are like the reviewer who unfairly gave this one star because he needs to be constantly reminded of what the word for "go" is, then this app is not for you.
2) This app does not support Romaji input (JDict actually supports input and can display in Romaji) Most JE people can usually read Kana, but if you cant JDict may be a better choice.
Its really cool to be able to write kanji into the pad. This is really useful when you need something written on a sign or something to be translated. (JDict does this too, but it doesnt seem to parse into groupings as well.)
Finally, I would love to see a more robust dictionary in future versions (so we can find the word "go" if were too drunk or stupid to remember). I would also like to see the incorporation of a reader that utilizes the camera on iphone to translate kanji. Most Japanese phones already do this.
[PS] Note to Apple: Kanji is not Traditional Chinese, or Simplified Chinese. Please include Kanji handwriting in the Japanese keyboard section. Certain Kanji have moved away from their original Chinese form. Plus, are you even selling iPhone in China yet?
This is not a bad dictionary for the price. Ive played around with it for about 10 minutes now, and its usually correct for basic translations. This will not be my main dictionary (I prefer my DS 楽引辞典), but will be great when I dont have it on me. In short, worth the price (as other reviewers have noted, you must know kana to use this--but thats a given for most dictionaries). And I agree with a previous reviewer: Apple needs to wise up and add kanji handwriting input; Chinese characters can differ from Japanese ones.
I was quite hesitant as to if I should buy this app or wait for the next EDICT app to come out. I ended up purchasing this app.
There was one error which I experienced such as when I looked up a word, the output displayed the same exact entry twice. This should be a simple fix. I like the interface,readability and output relativity. It is very easy on the eyes. Of course it doesnt measure up to the DS楽引辞典, but if you dont want to carry around a DS, this referance app is your best bet.
A few things that I would love to see in future updates are:
Input history
Ability to zoom in on kanji characters
Kanji stroke order/count
A user dictionary
and JLPT lists
Overall great app!
Some bad moments
The problem is that it relies on EDICT to go from E->J when EDICT is not designed for this. If you want to look for the word "GO" it assumes its Japanese and gives you a list of Japanese words, in order to look up english "go" you have to search "to go", which is not how a dictionary should work.
The hiragana is to small to make out the variation marks. There are too many words actually. A lot of the time when I use words from this dictionary my Japanese room mate would give me a weird look followed by "thats a very old/unusual word ... no one uses that word any more." He described some of the words as being so old that its like listening to Shakespear in Japanese.
To be honest, when I first started using this application I was thrilled to find a Japanese-English dictionary that accomplished my basic needs. Unfortunately it has several issues that make it not nearly as ideal as the FREE "Kotoba!" dictionary. Notably, there is no way to zoom in on Kanji - meaning for especially tiny Kanji - example 鬱 - うつ - "utsu" - look like a tiny black smudge. This is incredibly irritating as it makes it impossible to distinguish the Kanji.
"Kotoba!" - FREE application - while isnt perfect, has a much more thorough definition, reading (of both Hiragana and Kanji) is much more legible and easy to read, and even includes Romaji. Another feature is a stroke order, with moving image for many of the more common Kanji.
Considering this "gogoNavi" is a paid application, I expect better support, and frankly better features than a free program. The one small redeeming quality is that you can save a favorites list of words and it has a history of recently searched words... these two features are the only reasons I still on the rare occasion use this dictionary over the free "Kotoba!".
