My First Japanese Study Note in Mindmap

This mindmap is currently not available due to editing. Kindly visit this blog for updates. Thanks!

Hi all, finally I've completed my first mindmap for my Japanese study note. Click here to have a look and remember to leave your comment. You're welcome to share this note with anyone.

My First Blog Brainstorming Mindmap

This is my first ever published mindmap. I used this to brainstorm my PDA Japanese Dictionary blog. There will be more to come, especially mindmaps for my Japanese learning notes. Click here for the mindmap in Freemind format.

PDA Japanese Dictionary

At last, I have the time to write about my new toy - PDA phone. After all the online research, I bought my PDA phone from a friend at a cheap price. So, why PDA and not deshi jisho (electronic dictionary)?

During my research, I had been to Queensbay Mall to ask about PDA phones and had the opportunity to try out an electronic dictionary from Instant. I tried the handwriting recognition feature. It just doesn't work. After all, all the electronic dictionaries that are available in Malaysia are not designed for Japanese learning. Japanese dictionary is just an add-on feature. So, it is definitely not what I am looking for.

A Japanese brand denshi jisho? I have never tried one and don't know how good it is. Since it is not available in Malaysia, I have to either buy it online (which I don't have much confidence in buying a product worth thousands through websites) or fly to Japan and get myself one. If you are interested in knowing more about the pros of PDA over a denshi jisho, go to http://www.japaneselanguagetools.com/.

After playing with the PDA phone for two weeks, I find it rather helpful than a denshi jisho. It is not only a dictionary, it is also a phone and a PDA. I started to learn MindMapping early last year, but never actually put in much effort in mastering this skill. With my PDA phone, I installed the free Pocket Freemind. It is just so cool for organizing tasks. Though the PC version is a lot more powerful, especially for creating mindmap to learn Japanese. (P/S I will show my Japanese learning notes in mindmap in this blog in the future.) And there are the mobile Outlook, Office and calendar. All these are very helpful tools. I even thought of using my PDA phone to take notes during daily meetings.

So, why it took me two weeks before I write this blog? It took me two days to get the Japanese dictionaries to work on the PDA. (If you are not IT savvy, don't even try to do this.) And another two weeks to figure out how to use the PDA to get everything done, quickly and easily. Let's see how to make my PDA phone (Windows Mobile 5 English version) to support Japanese input and Japanese dictionaries.

Firstly, get yourself a CE-Star from Mobem. It is quite an expensive software which supports Chinese and Japanese input. I got it for free as my PDA phone is a Dopod. All Dopods come with CE-Star bundled with them. There are many articles online teaching you how to hack the Windows Mobile and use Japanese input for free. You may try it if you are adventurous enough. If you are not, get the CE-Star. CE-Star has a wonderful handwriting recognition feature. However, I prefer the Japanese Input layout from Ookii.

Download this Japanese Input from Ookii. I am not quite sure if this Ookii Japanese Input works alone without CE-Star on Windows Mobile English version. I tried to install the Ookii Japanese Input without intalling CE-Star, I could run the panel and the handwriting recognition did work, but when I selected the word and copy it to the Word, it showed only a blank square. Before you install Japanese Input, you need to install a Japanese font in your PDA. Personally I prefer MSMincho. Don't copy and paste the font file on your device. Go to your Control Panel on your PC, and click into Fonts. Select the font you need, both MSGothic and MSMincho will work. Connect your device to your PC using ActiveSync. Now, open your device from PC, and go to Windows\Fonts. Drag the font file from your PC to your device. This will install the font on your device. After installing the font, copy and paste the CAB file you downloaded from Ookii to your device. Now, open the CAB file on your device, and it will run and install automatically. After the installation finish, run the Japanese Input. It will prompt you about the font. Just follow the instruction on your device. Further reading about Ookii Japanese Input and how to install Japanese font.

Now, you need to get yourself a dictionary reader software. There are many out there. I am using the EBPocket that support EPWING format. Download EBPocket free 1.29 ( free版 ) ダウンロード and unzip and install the EBPocket.PPC2003En_ARM.CAB on your device.

Lastly, download the dictionaries from Japanaselanguagetools.com. Edict, Enamdict, Kanjidic and Kanjidic2 are all the free dictionaries created by Jim Breen. Peter Rivard of japaneselanguagetools.com has them converted into EPWING files. So, just download from the website and copy to your device. Save them in the storage card. They are quite big files, especially Kanjidic2. Personally I am not using Kanjidic2 because it takes up too much space and the Kanji entries are the same with Kanjidic with strokes display. If you can read Chinese, you don’t really need Kanjidic2. Kanjidic will do.

If you want to use commercial dictionaries, you can order from japaneselanguagetools.com. Peter Rivard supplies the full PDA system and also dictionaries installed on SD card. Eijiro is a very useful dictionary, try the web version and see if you would like it Web Eijiro. Goo.ne.jp is also a very powerful online dictionary, the data is from Daijirin. However, the J-E or E-J dictionaries are not that useful as they do not provide examples. Goo is more for advanced learners.

For in-depth reading about Japanese dictionaries and PDA, read www.japaneselanguagetools.com, Jim Breen and Zaurus. Personally, I reverted an enquiry to Armin Rump from Zaurus, and the reply was fast.

Enjoy your PDA Japanese dictionaries adventure!

Stop Complaining

I was trying to write in my Chinese blogger as I've been complaining too much for the past few weeks. I tried to churn something fun out of my brain. Sad. I couldn't think of anything that is fun about my work.

I used to share a lot of funny jokes from work place with my family. I stopped doing that since I changed job and become a due diligence research analyst. Sad. I've never have anything that is really fun and happy about the work or workplace to share with my family nor my friends.

What is good about this new job? Higher salary. Anything else? Career advancement opportunities. (It's too vague now, and I think all my hard work are in vain.) Is there anything else? (trying so hard to think of one) NO more!

Here I am, complaining again. But, I just can't help it. There must be ways to stop myself from complaining. There must be. Just that they haven't show themselves up.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

It's been a while I never posted anything here. Busy, that's all I can say. And tired, with granny and work.

Granny is not getting better or worse, just as she is. There's nothing I can do to help nor improve the situation, so, I gave up.

Work, too much politics in it. Pissed, with that stupid appraisal system, which means nothing but a piece of junk. Within this company, nothing is worthwhile. All the hardwork, late nights, are all in vain. A recommendation for promotion from the supervisor and manager doesn't even help me to get a better bonus.

Am I quitting? Hmmm, I will, someday. I still want the promotion, not for the money, merely for the opportunities lie behind it.

Cheers! It's life, nothing we can change. So, laugh over it!

My new toy - Dopod 818

I'm so excited today. My new toy - Dopod 838 is arriving tomorrow. Though it's a used PDA phone, I don't really mind it since I get to save at least a thousand bucks. Hehe

I'll keep you updated after I play with it. *^_^*