Word Look-up Issue for 7th Generation Kindle Paperwhite

[nsimpso4]

So I just purchased a brand new 7th Generation Kindle Paperwhite after losing my Fire. Naturally, the first thing that I did was try out one of my graded, Mandarin books, but I have been unable to select single simplified characters. Whenever I press my finger to the screen, multiple characters would be highlighted and the slider could not be used to narrow the selection (the slider does work to broaden). This is depressing because this has severely limited my ability to look up characters that I am unfamiliar with. For example, say that I didn't know the character 住. If I were to try to select it, the neighboring character would also get picked up. Maybe 住在海南 would get selected and the dictionary will just say "No definition found." At least Bing translator works, but that won't help if I want to learn pronunciation. The Pinyin feature that Amazon hyped up also doesn't seem to be working. 

 

Does anyone know how to fix this? Or perhaps has anyone had a similar issue and found a work around? I would hate to have to return it.

 

Thanks,

     

[roddy]

Is it possible to set the OS language to Chinese, if not already done? That can make a difference to how things work. On my Paperwhite (older, I think) it's settings, device options, language and dictionaries, language, then 簡體中文 is right at the bottom.

[sekkar]

My paperwhite (older gen.) works the way you want yours to work, I.e. it selects one character and I use the slider to select more if I want to. I don't think I did anything special to set it up. 

 

Which dictionary did you download? I'm using 現代漢語詞典.

 

The pinyin feature have never worked though.

 

 

[nsimpso4]

Unfortunately Roddy's solution of setting the OS to 簡體中文 did not work for me. 

I did download a dictionary that I used to use on my Kindle Fire, called LXM Multi-Index Instant-Lookup. Thinking that dictionary might somehow be the issue, I reset my Paperwhite and tried to select using the 现代汉语词典 that came with my device. 

 

Which generations of Paperwhite are you guys using? I think I might have to trade mine in for one of the older versions or go for a different company. I don't know how to look up characters by strokes, so not having the instant lookup feature on a device is a deal breaker for me.

[roddy]

Mine’s a 2012 (serial number starting B024), firmware 5.6.1.1. Hadn’t realized I’d had it so long, I’m due an upgrade. 

 

Selecting single characters works for me, but I only have the actual dictionary to test with, no actual chinese books on there. 

[sekkar]

I have a Paperwhite 2 (2012).

[Luxi]

I have a Kindle Voyage 7th generation that seems to have updated itself to 8th generation after the latest firmware update (can't tell what's the difference). I can't find a choice to install different dictionaries as in the older Kindles, it comes with the 现代汉语词典。

 

I'm not 100% sure whether this applies to e-books in Chinese purchased through Amazon, I use the Kindle to read my own text and word doc files (uploaded using the 'send to Kindle' email option). The dictionary is still a struggle, I have to change the font size to be able to single out 1 or 2 characters. I can select single characters for the dictionary but it takes much patience, time, and choice expletives. I often have to use the dictionary just to remind myself of the pronunciation, which makes it even more irritating, why not giving the pinyin also in compounds? 

 

A workaround? Use the Kindle app in a smart phone or tablet, it defeats the purpose of having a kindle but the dictionary function works better. If it's a difficult text full of unfamiliar words, I prefer to paste the text in Pleco using the clipboard reader.