Kodansha's Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary [Paperback]

Masatoshi Yoshida (Author), Timothy J. Vance (Author), Yoshikatsu Nakamura (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 4770016034 | ISBN-13: 978-4770016034 | Publication Date: May 1993 | Edition: 1st

A major advance over other romanized dictionaries in both breadth of coverage and sophistication of usage, this work is an invaluable tool for students of Japanese at the introductory to intermediate level. Includes 8,000-word basic vocabulary, entries written in English and in Japanese characters, examples and sample sentences.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Kodansha has done us a great service by publishing this very useful dictionary. It can help beginning students of spoken Japanese in making the initial jump into verbal comprehension--a much easier way to learn the language than trying to master the multiple writing systems along with the language. The layout of the volume is clear and legible, with a number of useful appendixes. Sample sentences are included with many definitions, which does slant the dictionary toward a more educationally based set of uses. Some 16,000 words are listed--a very good working vocabulary. It should be pointed out, however, that this dictionary is not unique. The Taiseido Pocket Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary has been through at least ten editions and has over 50,000 words. The Taiseido is perhaps a better choice for reference collections, while the Kodansha version should be purchased for high school and college-level use and by those who contemplate a stay in Japan.
- Mike Heines, USAF Rome Laboratory Technical Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English, Japanese

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Product Details

• Paperback: 666 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International (JPN); 1st edition (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770016034
• ISBN-13: 978-4770016034
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,156,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, Handy, Durable, September 26, 2001

By 

Thomas F. Ogara (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kodansha's Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary (Paperback)

I'd recommend this dictionary to any starting student in Japanese. The entries are in Romaji, so looking up colloquialisms is no problem. Plenty of illustrations of usage are included under each entry, and it's a rare occasion when I can't find what I'm looking for.

Of course, it's no subsitute for a kanji dictionary, but one of the burdens that students must bear in learning Japanese is that they will eventually need at least two Japanese-English dictionaries - one for looking up words they hear and another for kanji. If you select this dictionary for the first category you won't go wrong.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accent included in this excellent dictionary, November 22, 2008

By 

Eric Justice (Boulder, CO, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kodansha's Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary (Paperback)

I've been looking for a Japanese dictionary that includes pronunciation (pitch accent) and this is the only one I've found. I already had the furigana version, which is also a good choice, but unfortunately that one doesn't include the accent.

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific study aid, December 6, 2011

By 

Dong Tran (Bloomfield, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kodansha's Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary (Paperback)

The Kodansha Romanized Japanese-English dictionary is the right size and right resource for the beginner but serious student of Japanese. The entries are concise and provide very helpful sentence structures that reinforce the overall grammatical context.
As a matter of fact, this is my second copy of the dictionary. I keep one at work where I study my Japanese during breaks and keep the second one at home for home study!