Customer Reviews

Basic Japanese-English Dictionary

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This book is excellent for the beginner who only wants to translate japanese to english, as it is ONLY japanese-english. It does not contain especially many words, only 3000, but it covers the most usual phrases and words. One thing that is REALLY good is that the book is full of examples, sometimes 10-15 different for a word. All examples are written in romaji and KANA/KANJI. It also states the type of verb (I,II,III) which I personally find really useful. In the end of the book there is also a 30+ page introduction of japanese grammar, which is good. It is fun to read, due to the examples, and I use it together with my other dictionary which also has an english-japanese part. I find all words (almost) in that one, but I learn more from this.

I have been the publisher for 3.5 years, and I have always suggested this dictionary as the best one for people who are just starting to master some Kanji and know the Kana well. Each entry is used in simple example Japanese language sentences, which I have found actually help the user learn more of the language each time the meaning of a new word is looked up. As a lexicographical text, it is useful to students, but perhaps not to scholars looking up arcane or technical expressions, but for anyone that is at the point where most texts and college courses leave you, this is a fantastic book.

Most prior reviews to this one will have you believe that this book is the answer to your prayers, if you have just started learning Japanese...... WRONG.......It will only work for you if you are smart enough to buy the reverse ie English to Japanese......and there are plenty of each way translation books about which are better for the complete beginner.. If you have learnt enough to get past the - (noun) wa (noun) desu - stage, and have a reasonable level of understanding Japanese, then this book is more in your league.

Its strength is the large amount of example sentences. You can learn a lot from this, but personally I find myself not using it very much. Whenever I need to look up a word, this dictionary very often falls short due to it only having 3 000 entries. I would instead recommend Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary (hardcover) which I recently bought and was positively surprised by. It has roughly 30 000 entries and many useful example sentences. 30 000 is infact not that much either; to find rare words you'd want one with 60 000+ entries as well. Also, this dictionary uses romaji while the Kodansha one does not. Romaji (Japanese written in the Roman alphabet) is clearly an evil to be avoided. It's tempting as a complete beginner to make use of romaji in one's studies, but imagine all the reading practise you are depriving yourself of. Once you get a bit of practise you will find that reading kana isn't very painful. The book does have Japanese script with furigana as well, but i find that it's hard to avoid reading the romanization. Also, this is one of those books that rudely closes itself automatically, while the Kodansha one doesn't. The binding is bad in my opinion. All this is atoned for somewhat by the low price (1103 pages for $13.27). But only if you're a complete beginner and too poor to get the Kodansha right now would i recommend buying it.

Needed this dictionary for my son's Japanese class. It is easy to use and is a great reference tool for him. I'm happy to have saved a few dollars by purchasing it on Amazon.com

I purchased this book for my daughter a while ago and she was not in love with it. She complained about a lack of words, however, she did enjoy some of the book's other features (including Japanese language history, grammar, and conjugation rules). It seems to be a good book for beginners, although, possibly not the best.

This dictionary is an invaluable reference to Japanese words. Many easy to understand examples of usage shown in English, Konji and Romanji.