Customer Reviews

Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary

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Kodansha's Furigana dictionaries are simply a few of the best Japanese<->English dictionaries I have seen on the market, especially for students of Japanese. The Japanese-English volume of this wonderful dictionary is simply indispensable to beginners of the language once they have mastered the two kana scripts, viz, hiragana and katakana, as would be expected of any serious student, since the dictionary does not contain any Romanised entries.

The entries are listed in kana, in the kana order, which is much better than other Romanised dictionaries which list Japanese words in English alphabetical order. If kanji exists for that entry, then it immediately follows the headword, after which comes the definition. One great feature about this dictionary particularly valuable to beginners who may not know many kanji is that all the kanjis, be they in the entries or the examples, have small kanas printed over them indicating their pronunciation, i.e., furigana. The definitions themselves are up-to-date, clear, being written for English speakers, and most entries contain illustrative example sentences indicating of usage. Synonyms are also indicated in the entries. Three appendices are included, listing verb conjugations, numerical counters and place names.

The book itself is physically handsomely produced, with a soft vinyl cover. The paper is of good quality, and the print is clear without being too small. Moreover, the size of the book is neither so large nor so heavy as to become inconvenient to the user.

In summary, then, the Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English dictionary is a great boon to any serious beginning student of Japanese. For the advance learner, however, its limited scope of some sixteen thousand words makes it perhaps not quite as useful. Two of its features, i.e., doing away with romaji (Romanised script), which is very irritating to users familiar with kana, by using kana instead (as the Japanese would, in any case), and indicating the reading of all kanjis with furigana, sets this dictionary apart from others in the market, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any serious student embarking on a study of the Japanese language.

As a North American living and working in Tokyo for the past three years, it was inevitable that I'd come to study Japanese. After learning hiragana and katakana (the foundation for further language studies), I soon realized I needed a good dictionary to help build my vocabulary.

Unfortunately, all of the dictionaries I found were either "romanized" (a step backwards once kana has been learned), lacking an adequate base of intelligent vocabulary, or filled with advanced kanji intended for native speakers.

I was thrilled to find this excellent "furigana" dictionary by Kodansha. Furigana (small kana printed above the kanji entries which allow even beginning students to read the Chinese characters) has been provided for each entry. This was exactly what I'd been looking for.

The 16,000-word basic vocabulary has proven a great starting point for my studies, and I've come to rely on this book as a vital supplement for conversation, homework and continuing studies. Sensical definitions in clear English, along with sample sentences in modern Japanese makes this dictionary indispensible. The publisher's companion volume, "Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary," is also highly recommended. Both books feature a basic grammar explanation and useful index containing "counters" and other related information.

In Tokyo, I was able to get the 1997 and 1998 editions, respectively, for each volume, and they're both soft cover editions--a plus over the hard cover versions. Overall, a must have for all beginning to intermediate students of Japanese.

I studied Japanese in college and recently moved to Tokyo to live and work. My Japanese is at an intermediate/advanced level and I was looking for a Japanese dictionary to use at work. I really loved Kodansha's English-Japanese dictionary so I thought that the Japanese-English dictionary would be just as good. I was very wrong. I just read a newspaper article about banks and not ONE word I looked up was in the dictionary. My co-worker lent me her Kenkyusha's New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary ... and every word was in it. Any one need a paperweight?

Besides presenting the pronunciation of the words in authentic furigana, this dictionary also provides useful example sentences to help you understand the word in context. The type is easy to read, too.

well, I was here reading others' review while i was about to master my 5th language - Japanese. I bought lot of Cheap Japanese-Chinese book / dictionary in China, but nothing compares with this dictionary. Those examples are helpful if not crucial for understanding the use of the words. However! I think it miss something whcih other dictionaries got: an index for checking out the Chinese characters (Kanji). very often, readers encounter Chinese Kanji in the Japanese language without Furigana, this dict can't help at all if you don't know how to pronounce the word. as you think like this, this dictionary is 1/3 useless. I should have given it 3 stars as a reader in general for this oversight(5stars for the English-Japanese one), but since I'm chinese, I can read most of them, . Yet sometimes I come across word groups that made up of all the Kanji that I know and still make no sense. My suggestion is: if you don't need to get the dictionary on a trip or something, don't buy these two dictionary, buy the one with both dictionaries compiled together, I wish it was available a month earlier.

This is a good, high-quality Japanese-English dictionary. Its fatal flaw is that is doesn't really contain sufficient entries to be truly practical. There are quite a few times when I've searched for a word in vain. Simple words like "koutsuuhi" (traveling expense; though it did have "koutsuu": traffic), or even "zarigani" (crayfish)!

Of course, this limited set of words is also what allows the dictionary to be printed at a legible font size, with excellent usage examples, furigana, and pages at least thicker than those of a compact Bible, all while still being quite portable. Additionally, an advanced user wishing to shore up his or her vocabulary would probably find this a very useful book, as with only 16,000 words.

Still, a dictionary isn't usually intended for vocabulary-building, but for looking words up; for that, you'd be better off with a somewhat more comprehensive dictionary.

well organized and pretty good definitions, but limited. Even just watching japanese news/tv, you quickly find yourself outpacing this dictionary.

well, I was here reading others' review while i was about to master my 5th language - Japanese. I bought lot of Cheap Japanese-Chinese book / dictionary in China, but nothing compares with this dictionary. Those examples are helpful if not crucial for understanding the use of the words. However! I think it miss something whcih other dictionaries got: an index for checking out the Chinese characters (Kanji). very often, readers encounter Chinese Kanji in the Japanese language without Furigana, this dict can't help at all if you don't know how to pronounce the word. as you think like this, this dictionary is 1/3 useless. I should have given it 3 stars as a reader in general for this oversight(5stars for the English-Japanese one), but since I'm chinese, I can read most of them, . Yet sometimes I come across word groups that made up of all the Kanji that I know and still make no sense. My suggestion is: if you don't need to get the dictionary on a trip or something, don't buy these two dictionary, buy the one with both dictionaries compiled together, I wish it was available a month earlier.

Takes the pain out of Kanji. If you hate finding Kanji in a dictionary and not knowing how to say it (and thus feeling not very helped by your dictionary), Kodansha's furigana dictionaries are the answer to your problem. Don't leave uchi without it.

This dictionary has the kind of format I like best. There are plenty of example sentences and the font is clear and doesn't strain the eyes as some dictionaries of Asian languages tend to.

Furthermore, since the reader has no other option but to look up the English translation of Japanese words in Furiganga, there is constant Kana practice inherent in the design of the book. From an educator's standpoint, that is a very positive reinforcement tool for first and second year students who might still have trouble with Kana.

Nevertheess, I only wish this dictionary were more comprehensive for advanced students of the language.