[https://www.amazon.com/Adelagnes-Language-Translator-Dictionary-Languages/dp/B0CH7MZTQP/ref=sr\_1\_23](https://www.amazon.com/Adelagnes-Language-Translator-Dictionary-Languages/dp/B0CH7MZTQP/ref=sr_1_23)
I am finding sometimes I am trying to read a sentence, and I might understand all the particles and grammatical components, but kanji or logic statements throw off my understanding, and my entire flow of reading is thrown off while I try to look up grammar and kanji on lists. I saw a Chinese woman using one of these at the market to read English things, and when I found but they work both ways in all sorts of languages (including Japanese) I immediately thought how great this would be and speed up my reading comprehension.
Thoughts on these? Useful? Hindering?
8 comments
It seems kind of gimmicky. Do you just want it so you can digitize the text you’re reading? There are OCR apps for your phone that can do that. I’m not sure the best one though.
I think it might be good for actually translating stuff for you
but that’s not exactly what I would want, I’d want probably something like, basically I want yomichan IRL for paperback books
something like, I would put the pen on it and a dictionary entry would appear somehow
market gap quick someone invent this
Does it work for multiple lines of text?
I used to scan stuff as a PDF and run OCR on it so I could look words up more easily. Seems like a better version of that.
I’ve been brute forcing it by writing sentences out in pencil that I don’t know. Then translating with a Japanese app or Jisho. Then typing them into Excel.
I don’t know if skipping some of these steps would make it easier and less effective. Pencil improves my handwriting (also a step in memorization), Jisho/Apps edify the process, and typing it all out is another step in memorization (both of input modes and the act of typing the words).
Very tempted though…
I agree with u/Chezni19 and u/somever in that while the tech seems quite convenient for a quick-and-dirty way to understand things, over-relying on “translation” as a whole is not going to be good for your Japanese learning in the long-term.
Aside to u/Chezni19 — that would indeed be a pretty awesome invention. E-book readers (or at least the Kindle, probably others too) are probably the closest thing to this as you can just put your finger on the word and get an instant J-J or J-E dictionary lookup, though again that won’t help you for authors whose works aren’t available in e-book format (like 安部公房) or more obscure works in general. (And of course it doesn’t help if you’re the type of person who genuinely prefers physical books.)
my man just get an e-book reader and you’re good
Honestly I would avoid reading anything non digital in Japanese as much as possible until you are at a level where you almost don’t need to look up anything because it’s just such a huge time investment.
This tech seems interesting but is flawed in that it gives you translation, I would much rather have it give me dictonary definition of single words like u/Chezni19 suggested.
Digitally reading things solve this problem anyway, so I don’t think the 100$ would be worth it. And if you don’t like reading on screens, get yourself a kindle or other E-Ink E-Reader, well wort 100$ or perhaps even like 50$ if you find a second hand one.