Jisho: Japanese to English translator for the Mac

I've tried it and even for the simplest words ("salmon"), it doesn't have the Japanese word. It's a nice idea, but fails. What the Japanese call "a daylight lampshade" (昼行灯）- i.e. pretty useless. I think an English expression might be less polite!

Wow, didn't know Japanese dictionaries was such a touchy topic! At least I got one or two helpful links out of these comments...

Simon Arch: The readings are wrong, as simple as that. 根本 can never be *read* as kongen ("gen" is the chinese reading of "moto") and　根元 can never be *read* as konpon ("pon" is the japanese reading; "hon" with a change in sound - essentially stemming from easier pronunciation). As for thhe meanings of the words being similar is different matter entirely.

The above mentioned bug has been fixed and a fix will be released later next week. I should note that the above bug only effected entries that had restrictions to how the kanji are read.

James Van Dyne
Sugoi Software

"This is how well [read: bad] we know the langugae we're *selling* you and [sic] app for"

Except, of course, for the part where they're both legitimate readings for those kanji.

jogloran: If they want bad PR for their app that screen shot is as good as it gets. "This is how well [read: bad] we know the langugae we're *selling* you and app for". They should fix that screen ASAP.

"What I'd like to know is why the one screenshot of the software has the reading konpon for 根元, while listing the reading kongen for 根本 in the list box?!" QFT

I wouldn't hire a professional translator relying on Genius... Not that those aren't good for what they are but they're nowhere near tools for professionals. But maybe you're at native level and only need those to check up on things...? (not sure whether I'm sarcastic or not when saying that, but any talk about Japanese language always seems to end in a pissing contest) Do yourself a favour and at least get a electronic dicitionary with Kenkyusha (the big one) and the ability to cross reference queries.

JEdict is functionality wise (not taking word count etc into account, though you can add your own dictionaries with JEdict) the nicest I've found so far when it comes to studying. There are some from the maker of ATOK (a in some ways very nice, in some ways "you're in the way" kind of input manager for Japanese - http://www.justsystem.co.jp/) and the Genius one is also included in ATOK for quick reference when writing but in many cases I find it lacking. A good paper dictionary (either the furigana one already mentioned or if your'e a bit more advanced check out the Lighthouse series from Kenkyusha which are quite practical or their big ones) or an electronic dictionary (w/ cross reference and something like the big Kenkyusha/Kojien/whatever you might need) is still both learners and advanced speakers best bet, IMHO. Ideally both, actually.

jogloran, I just waved Rikaichan's magic wand over those, and the readings are correct, even if they're not the first in the list. As they mean essentially the same thing, I imagine it's matter of preference or possibly context which reading you'd use.

What I'd like to know is why the one screenshot of the software has the reading konpon for 根元, while listing the reading kongen for 根本 in the list box?!

Like pts & Adam, i also use JEDict, because it has the best features. Kanji search including the ability to draw kanji directly in via your wacom (admittedly still a bit hit & miss), searching on clipboard change, user-generated dictionary that can be used to generate word & kanji quizzes.
Also the ability to filter searchs for 2 kanij-only words, commonly used words etc. Plus of course you can use whatever dictionary file you like (including the Oxford dictionary that comes with OSX if you want to integrate all your dictionaries into one)

If Jisho can do all of this better than JEDict, i'll happily jump ship, but from the looks of it we'll be waiting a long time for that.