Wordtank G50


The Wordtank G50 was the flagship model of the Wordtank line of Electronic Japanese dictionary by Canon before it was replaced by the Wordtank G55, which was again superseded in capability by the later G70. It was introduced in May 2004.

Features

The Wordtank G50 is a bidirectional electronic dictionary, integrating both Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries. It also contains a standard Japanese dictionary and an abridged version of the Oxford English Dictionary. In addition, there is a kanji dictionary, with several thousand of the kanji having stroke order animations available. The G50 was the first electronic dictionary to feature stroke order animations, making it useful to students of the Japanese language who are learning kanji. The G50 also includes a katakana dictionary, a Japanese reverse dictionary, and an illustration dictionary.
Although the G50's feature set, particularly its variety of dictionaries, is extensive, it lacks stylus input and sound output, which are available on some competing models. It also lacks any furigana help for kanji, this mean that if you want to translate a word from English to Japanese you will only get the translation in Chinese characters. No translation with Hiragana is extremely unhelpful for non-Japanese.

Use

Although Canon only sells and supports its electronic dictionaries in Japan, the G50 has been exported and sold to English-speaking students of the Japanese language around the world. The appeal of the G50 is that it can replace large paper volumes, including bidirectional dictionaries and kanji dictionaries, with a portable device, while also making the search process faster.