hmm so it doesn’t, that’s unfortunate. I guess if you took the file and put through a program to guess where the word breaks ought to be then it could work after a fashion.
ah well still seems worthwhile because I’d love to have a nice e-reader that I could read from if I’m outside or sitting near a window on a sunny day. I get enough spending time in semi-dark rooms working on a computer. Also it now supports Chinese better than before.
If you buy a Kindle International can you then buy international books? Needless to say the UK Kindle Store’s offerings seem to be completely in English 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Kindle/b/ref=sa_menu_kbo0?ie=UTF8&node=341689031
I think Kindle store is only available in US, UK and Canada. (correct me if I’m wrong)
There’s only Kindle and Kindle DX (no domestic or international difference). 3G connection is available in 100 countries around the world; for wireless, you need a wireless router to connect to the internet.
Check out the library for electronic copies of books in other languages (it’s usually in .epub format, you can convert it with a software with epub2pdf, a free and downloadable open-source conversion program)
You can also check out some ebook trackers in the targeted language.
If you want to convert ebooks from one format to another I wholly recommend Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/
It’s a very flexible program, keeps track of all your books for you and supports any e-book reader or format you throw at it.
alright, in the US now and I’ve placed my order!
Now just to wait for October 6th, Then I can tell everybody what I think of it.
hey thanks for the recommendation. It looks like a decent program, I’ll definitely try it out.
ok the kindle has arrived!
and just tonight i have a chance to check it out.
so I am quite surprised that lingq actually works on the browser. if i put the pointer over the word the definition will pop up. only problem is that controlling the exact location of the pointer can be a challenge.
as for putting my own chinese to english dictionary on it i don’t know since that will take more work to test.
i am writing this on my kindle and even though the keyboard is not really meant for typing it is quite ok.
That is amazing bobafruit. How do you get the LingQ lesson onto your Kindle?
You can use LingQ on Kindle? Damn! Sounds like it beats my Hanlin then. That just, you know, displays ebooks and stuff.
I have Wi-Fi on my e-reader (onyx boox), but I have not tried to surf internet yet. Mostly because I doubt that it can show LingQ correctly, and the fact that there are no free Wi-FI both at work and home. But now I will definitely try. The problem is Wi-Fi… It seems I should go to the next Metallurg home game to use free Wi-Fi on the ice-rink 
Steve, the Kindle has a web-browser built in, and you can use it with wifi or 3G if you’ve got the 3G kindle.
it looks like a Chinese to English dictionary would also be possible, but I would have to find an appropriate dictionary online and convert it to the proper format myself… but after that I might be able to put it up on the kindle store…
anyway, I’m already glad I paid the extra $50 for the 3G version because I’m at my uncle’s house and I can’t get wifi in any room except for the kitchen.
@skyblueteapot It’s amazing, it doesn’t need to be able to use lingQ, but it does work and that is awesome.
Hey guys!
I finally worked up the motivation to create my own custom dictionary and it is looking good. It’s a Chinese to English dictionary, it’s basically converted from CEDict so it has numbers for the tones instead of tone marks and I prefer the tone marks. I think I’ll work on that today. Honestly I’m thinking that I should put it somewhere where more people can get at it, since if it works then it will be a boon for Chinese learners, and probably a great reason for them to get a kindle.
My only problem is that my Kindle isn’t working, so while I am waiting on a fix for my Kindle I can’t test out my dictionary.
So, anyone here have a Kindle 3 and willing to test out my custom dictionary?
If you can help out just reply in this thread or send a PM, I’ll send you the file and instructions on how to set it as your Kindle’s dictionary. I appreciate any help you can give.
Here, check out this forum post, you can download the dictionary from it and see if it works or not.
OK, one last post on the subject.
It seems that the answer to my question is “no the dictionary won’t work” and then the answer to the question “Can I make it work?” is “Yes”.
For any other Chinese learners with a Kindle… or frankly anyone who wants a “foreign language” to English dictionary, you can make it work with duokan.
English discussion here.
If you can read Chinese, visit here.
http://www.duokan.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=2208&extra=page%3D1
wow, I havn’t checked the forum for so long…
bobafruit, I’m surprised you got it to work on the Kindle. I remember the last time I tried, it showed in a pop up window that I need a java applet plug-in or something like that to display the content. I wonder how you got around that?
The “duokan” program looks promising. I havn’t tried it out yet on my Kindle DXG but I will open an account later and see how it works on my reader. By the way, just wondering, what’s your preferred site for downloading chinese ebooks?
I believe the Kindle DX has a different browser than the Kindle 3, so I don’t expect lingQ to work.
Duokan on the other hand will work great on your DX and since you can just download and use any dictionary it is easy to look up words. I’ve found lately that I use Duokan more than I use the normal Kindle firmware. Mostly because Duokan supports more file formats, has better PDF support, and can read Chinese .txt files without you having to send them to amazon to be converted first. Hell I got some books in epub format, so I’ve been using Duokan for my regular reading as well.
anyhow… sites for ebooks… they are all over the place. I think sina.com has a bunch. actually Duokan has a feature that shows you ebooks that are on several sites and you can read them off those sites, only problem is that you can’t use the dictionary while you’re reading the books off the websites…
Course with ebooks so easy to find it’s hard to sort the good from the bad, so as to my preferred site, quite honestly I am not yet to that stage of reading Chinese. If I could read as well as I can speak then I would be reading a lot more. As it is I am spending time reading some elementary and intermediate lessons from chinesepod.com. I’ve noticed with the Kindle I read more and longer. I tried reading their PDFs on the computer and I’d usually get through one lesson and wander off and so something else. On my Kindle I’ve blazed through like 40 Elementary level lessons in an hour.
It seems some people cannot use 3G once they update to the new firmware. Does that happen to yours too?
well Duokan can’t use 3G only wifi, but if I switch back to the regular kindle firmware 3G still works perfectly fine.
Aargh! The screen on my Hanlin (BeBook) has just packed up! Suddenly I realise how many ebooks I have to read and how dull my collection of paper books is. Looks like this might be a good time to buy one of these Kindle thingies. Apparently they now display Cyrillic properly and everything.
Now my Kindle itch is growing. My daughter is getting one for Christmas. Maybe I will too.