Dictionary usage in Japan
japan.internet.com reported on an opinion poll conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into the use of dictionaries. 331 members of their internet monitor pool successfully completed the survey, with 61.3% of the group male, 16.9% in their twenties, 41.7% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 9.7% in their fifties, and 3.6% in their sixties.
It may be useful to reference a previously-translated survey on electronic dictionaries. I’m surprised that ALC didn’t make it into the list as it seems rather a popular destination for the people in my office, for instance.
First, 206 people, or 62.2% of the sample used dictionary sites, either for looking up Japanese words or for translating foreign languages.
Q1: Which of the following online dictionary sites do you use? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Yahoo! Dictionary 121 58.7% goo Dictionary 83 40.3% excite Dictionary 58 28.2% infoseek Multi-dictionary 32 15.5% Sanseido Web Dictionary 24 11.7% @nifty Dictionary 10 4.9% livedoor Dictionary 9 4.4% BIGLOBE Dictionary Search 3 1.5% Weblio 2 1.0% Other 28 13.6% Wikipedia featured often in the “other” category.
For electronic dictionaries, just 25.1%, or 83 people used them.
Q2: Who are the makers of the electronic dictionaries you own? (Sample size=83, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Casio 46 57.8% Sharp 21 25.3% Seiko 12 14.5% Sony 9 10.8% Canon 5 6.0% Other 0 0.0% Finally, the people who had used dictionary sites were asked if they had also used automatic translation services. Note that the “languages” column only lists the language pairs that include Japanese, so Google is listed as supporting only English even though it can do English to many other languages.
Q3: Which of the following automatic translation services do you use? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)
Languages Votes Percentage Excite Translate English, Chinese, Korean 99 48.1% Yahoo! Translate English, Chinese, Korean 94 45.6% Google Language Tools English 29 14.1% infoseek Multi-translate English, Chinese, Korean 26 12.6% @nifty Translate English, Chinese, Korean 17 8.3% livedoor Translate English 7 3.4% Fresh Eye Translate English, Chinese 4 1.9% enjoy Korea Korean 3 1.5% POP Dictionary.com English, German 1 0.5% GOKOREA Korean 1 0.5% Can’t remember 17 8.3% Other 5 2.4%
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Durf said,
November 10, 2006 @ 11:20
I don’t think it’s too surprising to see ALC not make the list. It’s not so much a straightforward dictionary as a bilingual corpus of sorts . . . a huge collection of translations compiled from real sources of varying accuracy.
It’s a great tool to use as a translator since it provides so many examples in context. But it isn’t very trustworthy at times and it’s much easier to go to one of those glossaries on the list and get a “right answer” condensed into one or two short lines.
My first time visiting your site . . . I like it. Added the feed to my list. See you around!
Ken Y-N said,
November 10, 2006 @ 23:48
Hi Durf,
Thanks for the nice comment! Glad you like the place.
Yes, I suppose ALC isn’t really a dictionary as such, and agreed about the accuracy being a bit suspect! I usually use it as a last resort if WWWJDIC and Sanseido fail to turn up anything useful.