After considering some of the alternatives I decided to go ahead with purchasing a dedicated electronic dictionary, or denshi-jisho, to replace my broken Wordtank G50.

Casio

There appears to be a distinct lack of information on the Internet regarding Japanese electronic dictionaries for non-native learners of Japanese but I did find some very insightful reviews on Tokyo Tsure Zure Gusa describing several popular models made by Casio. Apparently, the popular XD-GW9600 was replaced by the XD-GP9700 and in turn this has now been replaced by this year’s model, the XD-GF9800.

Casio Ex-Word XD-GF9800 Electronic Dictionary (Denshi jisho)

In the end I chose to shell out for this year’s model which cost 35,000 Yen (especially expensive given the current exchange rate). Some of the reasons for this are that it features a kanji dictionary which shows stroke order (though not animated like my old Wordtank G50), true multi-dictionary search is supported and several other improvements over last year’s model such as the ‘Quick Palette.’ It’s a shame Casio changed the colour to white, but that’s really my only complaint!

Included Dictionaries

There are a vast number of dictionaries included with the XD-GF9800, most of which I’ll likely never use. However, there are some fantastic dictionaries that will be invaluable including the following:

• Readers English-Japanese 2nd Ed - 270,000 entries
• Readers Plus - 190,000 entries
• Kenkyusha’s Japanese-English 5th Ed. - 480,000 entries
• Kenkyusha’s English-Japanese Practical Usage - 380,000 entries
• Genius English-Japanese 255,000 entries
• Shin-Kangorin Kanji dictionary 14,353 characters/42,000 compounds

The kenkyusha dictionary is one of the best dictionaries you can get. In fact, the hard back copy is sitting on my shelf, though it’s too heavy to carry around so if anyone would like to buy it from me then let me know.

Kanji

With the EX-Word XD-GF9800 you can input kanji via the mini touch screen beneath the keyboard or using the main screen whilst using the kanji dictionary which is fantastic. Looking up kanji is an absolute breeze using this method. I no longer have to guess the readings of jukugo based on component kanji readings. What a time saver!

When you look up kanji in the kanji dictionary you can display compounds which include that kanji - not just in the first position of the compound, but anywhere! That’s one the features that has been on my wish list for the past few years.

Jump

When you jump from one dictionary to another (looking up a word from one dictionary in another) you don’t actually select entire kanji compounds. At first this seems confusing but in actual fact all multiple search results will be returned. For example, if you jump from the first character of “日本語”, “日本語” matches will be displayed followed by “日本” and lastly “日”.

People have complained that when you jump you need to select the desired dictionary before any results are displayed unlike some electronic dictionaries from other manufacturers which automatically search all relevant dictionaries. As I didn’t have this function on my previous dictionary I’m not too bothered. Also, once you’ve jumped you can press left and right to jump across different dictionaries.

Screen

The screen is also worth mentioning as it’s large, backlit at the press of a button - also on my wishlist - and as I’ve already mentioned, it’s touch sensitive. I just love how you can scroll through text with the touch pen.

Using the touch pen with the quick palette to the right hand side of the screen you can perform various commonly used functions such as jump, back, etc.

Other Features

There are so many features it’s hard to cover them all. The included MicroSD slot can be used to add additional dictionaries or text documents (ebooks etc) which could be handy. There’s also a USB socket, presumably so that you can access the MicroSD card whilst it’s still inside the dictionary.

I like the fact that you can create your own flash cards using your own hand-written input. You can then flip through the cards and there’s a permanent link to the original word that was being looked up at the time of the card’s creation.

The ‘Action Sensor’ is more gimmicky, however. Rotating the dictionary 90 degrees in certain modes will rotate Japanese text so that it flows top down and right to left. You can also ‘flick’ or turn over memo cards but again, is that really so useful?

The XD-GF9800 can also read out certain words, though most of these appear to be English entries. There’s also an earphone socket but rediculously you have to use the included earphones. If you don’t the instruction manual warns that the dictionary may start to malfunction!

One of my only complaints is with the word lists (単語帳). Words are automatically added to word lists based on their language i.e. all Japanese words will be in one list. I used to like keeping nouns, verbs, adjectives and random kanji in different word lists on my old dictionary but that’s just not possible with the XD-GF9800. Also, to tick a word as remembered you touch an icon on the bottom palette when it would be much more intuitive to touch the tick box next to the word on the main screen. When reviewing cards there is no way to display the headword and hide the meaning. Using the flip cards is a viable solution but you have to manually write them yourself! There’s also no way to tick a word off if you have zoomed into its meaning. Finally, if you delete a word from the list you are returned to the menu and can’t continue on from the next word. The word lists are very disappointing.

Video Review

To see the GF9800 in action check out this You Tube Casio EX-Word XD-GF9800 review - though it appears to be silver so I wonder if it’s a different model from this year’s range.

Final Thoughts

The Ex-Word XD-GF9800 has many of the functions on my ‘wish list’ and many more on top of that. Denshi jisho have certainly come a long way in the five years since I bought my last one. While I’m still getting familiar with the XD-GF9800 first impressions are exceptional.