Customer Reviews

The Modern English-Nihongo Dictionary: A Comprehensive New Japanese Language Resource

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I think I've got copies of most of the popular Japanese dictionaries for English-speaking learners - the Kenkyusha, Collins Shubun and a few others. Of course I also have several dictionaries designed for Japanese learners of English. These are useful for extracting some more obscure words and phrases but of course they're edited with Japanese native speakers in mind. I've been using the Modern English-Nihongo dictionary for more than two years now and can throughly recommend it to Japanese language learners who reject the somewhat fascist notion that one must only study, learn and look-up words in the Japanese hiragana/katakana/kanji scripts. This dictionary has them all. Example sentences written in 'romanji' then in orthodox Japanese script including kanji with the furigana readings written above in superscipt. Each page also has either a kanji readings box or a short cultural note (these are indexed). The editors have tried to list as many of the kanji as possible on the same page as their English equivalent - but this is not always possible. The boxes only list the first 1006 kanji studied in Japanese elementary school, but if you're a serious student of kanji then this dictionary is NOT for you. If ever there was a dictionary that deserved to be transformed into an electronic dictionary alongs the lines of the Canon Wordtank then this is the one. Then there might finally be an English to Japanese electronic dictionary accessible to learners of all levels.

The problem with most English- Japanese dictionaries available here in Japan, is that most are really aimed at Japanese native speakers who can read the all the kanji. The average Gaijin needs the Japanese equivalents to be in hiragana or romanized text. This dictionary is good in that all Japanese translations are given in both romanized text, hiragana and kanji readings. There are also numerous examples of sentences used for each word. However, the main drawback is the rather limited word count: There are only 6,000 entries. The dictionary is really aimed at the study room rather than as a useful reference to aid immediate communication. If you're looking for an intermediate level dictionary, this would be a good choice, but if you're after something more comprehensive, maybe Collins Shubun would be a better bet for a lot less money.

The book is in perfect condition, just as I had anticipated -- no marks, scratches, or tears. I'm greatly looking forward to using it. Thank you very much!