March 05, 2007

Japanese lifesaver

My trusty Japanese wordtank is no more.

It feels like the end of an era.
I bought this word tank (for those who don't know, I'm talking about a digital Japanese <-> English dictionary and more) within a few months of living in Japan for the first time 8 years ago and it immediately proved to be indispensable. Not just for studying, but also for daily life while trying to find my way around Japan.

I've used it ever since for any moment that I needed it when living in Japan, studying in the Netherlands, writing emails, doing interpreting jobs etc etc. The thought of relying only on big heavy dictionaries again is quite impossible.

However, over the past year I've hardly used it and as I was replacing the batteries last night - an error message flashed up saying that the memory of the machine had expired! I had no idea such a thing could happen!

I am still kind of in shock - I can't believe I need to get a new wordtank! Especially since I haven't seen many newer ones that seem so easy to use as this one :-( Maybe it really is a sign that I finally need to let go of Japan and everything involved with it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i can imagine how you must feel about your trusty wordtank passing away... mine died 2 years after purchasing it, but that was due to the fact that all the equipment i carry around in my back pack doesn't last very long (i think i worn out about 8 walkmans during highschool). I had a friend of mine bring me a new one when she went over to japan, 'cause i simply couldn't do without! this one's still alive, thanks to the sturdy i cover i taylor-made it :) and i still use it every now & then.
but hey, don't give up on japan, especially with your level of japanese!you never know when it might come in handy again...

cheruchan said...

it hurts when wordtanks die.. especiallig when you kill it yourself by spilling lemonade on it.. but, it has been 2 weeks, and i am surviving haha!