Once I've gotten my web browser to display Japanese, how can I use my computer to help me read Japanese?
For those of us living in Japan, browsing the Internet in Japanese can mean more than just studying. Between the news in your area and e-mails from your Internet provider telling you that your bill is overdue, being able to read Japanese on the Internet can be very useful. The good thing is that you don't have to be a Japanese whiz kid to get a good idea about what most things say. As long as you have a basic understanding of Japanese grammar, you will be able to decipher most Japanese using online tools and dictionaries.
First, let's look at online Japanese-English dictionaries. It's easy to copy and paste things that you find into an online dictionary, and sometimes this will give you the best results. I have found that one of the best dictionaries is the Eijiro dictionary. You can often find things in this dictionary that bring even the most expensive electronic dictionaries to their knees. Another good, popular dictionary is Jim Breen's WWWJDIC. While it doesn't provide quite as much content as Eijiro, it has some features that Eijiro doesn't. For example, it can translate words even when they're in the past tense. WWWJDIC is also designed for native English speakers, unlike Eijiro.
While online dictionaries are quite useful and provide the most comprehensive databases available, the best tool is Rikaichan. It integrates Jim Breen's dictionary into the Firefox web browser via a Firefox extension, so that a Japanese-English translation is never more than a right click away. . Rikaichan displays information in the same way as rikai.com does. You just slide your cursor over the word or kanji that you want to know and a pop up box will give you a list of meanings. Also, if you use the Thunderbird email client from Mozilla, you can install the Rikaichan extension and use it to read emails in Japanese.
Rikaichan with firefox, in action:
The Straight Dope: For an online dictionary try using Eijiro with WWWJDIC as a backup. The best way to read Japanese online though, is Rikaichan.
No.1 UntitledI had been envisioning something like it for years. I'm glad somebody who actually knows how to program got off their arse and made it.
In fact, RikaiChan is the reason I switched to FireFox.
By the way, does anyone know how to change the text colors of the RikaiChan window?
No.2 UntitledNo.3 UntitledNo.4 Untitled