rikaichan

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

by sara_t on Dec. 7, 2012 · permalink

This is a truly excellent add-on: easy to use and unobtrusive, it lets you go through pages and pages of Japanese text without having to pause mid-sentence to search a term on the dictionary. This improves reading speed, reading comprehension and enjoyment of the experience of learning Japanese. The Japanese-English dictionary sometimes gets meanings that my paid for electronic dictionary can't. The names dictionary is also very useful, even if it could use more entries. Of particular interest is the feature that displays next to the translation the inflection of a word (past, polite, potential, passive etc.). That's useful not only for reading but also for checking your own emails and other writings and make sure you got a form right. If I have to find something to nitpick, a more compact and stylish design wouldn't hurt.