Customer Reviews

Seiko RM2000 Japanese/English Dictionary with Roget's II New Thesaurus

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The dictionary works fine, but suffers from a lack of words, especially going from Japanese to English. To give one of many, many examples, it doesn't have Chuugoku (the word for "China") going from Japanese to English. It's totally unsuitable for a student studying Japanese. It might be OK for a tourist or someone living in Japan who doesn't intend to learn the language, except for one other problem: the price.

I had hoped that this dictionary would have a stock of words similar to the Franklin dictionaries that I've used in the past for French and Spanish, but no go. This thing doesn't have anywhere near the range of those dictionaries.

I'm an exchange student in Nagoya right now and I bought the RM2000 to help me get around. As a student of the Japanese language, I was dissappointed. It couldn't really help me converse with my friends. But it has proven useful at such places as the bank ("Hmm... how do I say, 'I'd like to open an account'?") and other various stores and shops. It is a good dictionary for a traveler or a beginning student. For a more advanced person, I recommend the Canon Wordtank IDF-4000. It has a jump feature that allows you to look up a word in English, select the kanji, and then jump to the pronunciation. That way, you don't have to search all around just to say the word. It too has an English interface.
I'm really happy the RM2000 was made though. I hope it will lead the way for other dictionaries focused on the foreign user.

Here is what is good about the RM2000:
1) It is the first serious electronic dictionary designed more foreigners learning Japanese.
2) It is light.

Here is the down side:
1) It uses the "Hepburn" Romaji. Hepburn Romaji went out of fashion in the long ago - It is not the Romaji used in modern Japanese textbooks.
2) It is not possible to input hiragana - pain in the "neck"
3) It lacks many common words (i.e., "feudalism"; "stance"; etc.).

Up to now I have been using the Canon Wordtank Super IDJ-9000. It is designed for Japanese learning English. It is quite frustrating, because it assumes you can pronounce the kanji.

The downside to the Canon Work Tank is that it takes extensive work-arounds to get the pronunciation of the kanji, although it is often possible. Moreover, it does have an English display mode and manual.

Also, with the Canon Wordtank I can look up kanji by strokes and radicals.

Alas, what am I to do? I will anxiously wait for a better dictionary. I will not return the Seiko RRM2000, but I will carry both the Seiko RM2000 and Canon Wordtank with me. Not so bad since they are much lighter than hardcover dictionaries.

Such is life. Sophisticated dictionaries for students of Japanese are limited.

When I first bought this dictionary in Japan, it really helped me a lot because I couldn't read chinese characters. I would carry it with me wherever I went as it was really small and light. It helped me a lot in conversation because I could search for a word fairly quickly and it also was a big help in learning Kanji. But it didn't take long for me to realise that the vocabulary of the dictionary is VERY limited. This became much more apparent as I became better at Japanese. I wouldn't really recommend this dictionary to anyone simply because it's overpriced. I would recommend a dictionary for Japanese people (without Roman characters) because for the same price you can get a really good one especially the Casio Dictionaries.

I had the choice of several japanese translators, and though this one looked nice because it's meant "for english students" I decided on the seiko SR950 for several reasons:
1. has VERY large (230,000) japanese-japanese dictionary
2. has Katakana dictionary (borrowed words)
3. Kanji dictionary (VERY IMPORTANT if you ever want to actually try to figure out what a sign or something says, and the paperback ones are too big to manage)

On the other models they say "for native japanese" becuase the instruction manual is in japanese, but I did not find this to be an issue at all. There are buttons in black on the top row (same setup as this RM2000) and Frankly, if trial and error isn't simple enough (there's only 8 of em) it's pretty easy to ask someone who knows any of the language for a basic rundown and make a note of it on paper. Plus, assuming you do learn japanese, the features of this RM unit become rather obsolete, whereas the japanese-japanese and kanji dictionaries of the sr950 make it a favorite even among the japanese (it's the same price, may have to check the japanese link in amazon to get it though)

I did not expect much from this dictionary but I travel a lot on business and found that carrying my Jpn-Eng and Eng-Jpn dictionaries plus my Jpn text book, plus laptop, work, etc., was just too much. When I received the RM2000 I was really pleasantly surprised.

The contents are much more complete than I expected and are okay for my level (beginner -- I have had about 30 hours of individual lessons). The usability -- screen size, jump to alternate/related definitions, etc. - is very good. Each definition has useful examples. The RM2000 keeps a history of the most recent definitions looked up so you can easily go back to a word. Also, in case you mis-spell a word, a list of possibilities pops up.

Features I don't use -- there is an Idiom key that has not been useful. Also, I have never used the English thesaurus.

This should sell for $30.00 tops. That's the price of the other Seiko electronic translators. Because it's so expensive I was really upset when it stopped working after a few months. It didn't just break all at once it went out one key at a time. The problem is it uses a rubber pad with a magnetic strip to activate the chipset, but the metallic material was too thin and wore off quickly. Don't waste your money.

On the other hand a Japanese friend has another seiko model and it's awesome, built much better.

If you are looking for a robust Ei/Wa:Wa/Ei dictionary, stay away from this item. It's dictionary is atrocious. It is missing the most fundemental words. For someone with no kanji skills, this might be a good tool, but if you want a resource for finding that word you just don't know, you won't find it here. Returned for refund. Very expensive mistake.

I had actually wanted this for several years. However, since the vocabulary word number is so small compared to the other keyboards, I was a bit hesitant. The other so highly recommended one, the Casio IDF-3000, I actually purchased from Japan! It is a great one, but is way too hard for me to use yet, without Romanji. It is made for Japanese-fluent-speaking people to use. One day hopefully for me!

But that's what's so great about this RM2000. You type in an English word, then it tells you exactly how to SAY it in Japanese, then how to write it in HIRAGANA, and then how to write it more advanced in KANJI/+hiragana.

And it is the only existing one available that is for us learners who can't speak very well. But I can't wait to start writing some more letters to Japan. Have fun!

If you are just starting to learn Japanese, then this is probably a good dictionary for you. If you have been studying it for awhile and are serious about the language, don't get this dictionary.