Customer Reviews

The Starter Oxford Japanese Dictionary

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Reasons why this reference is so wonderful:

1. The "How to use this dictionary" section in the beginning has perhaps the world's best chart for converting conjugated verbs back to their dictionary form. (Making them much easier to look up.)

2. All Japanese entries are in Japanese syllabic script (kana), and followed by their kanji character if they have one. (They are also arranged kana-betically in the J-E section.)

3. The "Glossary of grammatical terms" is a fantastic refresher for those who haven't taken high school English in quite some time.

4. Headword entries are colored blue to help draw the eye.

5. Words which have issues associated with their use, have, after their definition, a special explanation which is marked with an "!" and enclosed within a blue box.

6. Multiple senses of a word are each bulleted. Different parts of speech are numbered.

7. Most words have examples of usage, and/or arrow points offering page numbers of related entries.

8. All verbs are followed by their -te, -nai, and -masu forms as an aid to beginners. And, particles which can be used with a particular verb, are displayed in circles in the verb's entry.

9. The usage notes in the center (which have a blue edge for access convenience) are excellent, clearly explaining and illustrating a variety of topics from verb conjugation, to irregular counters, to the Japanese school system. There is also a convenient kana chart in the back of the book.

10. The book contains both J-E and E-J sections, and its relatively small size makes it portable.

The Oxford Starter Dictionary is one of the best dictionaries available for students of Japanese. It may not be as complete as Kodansha's Furigana dictionaries (which are broken up into two separate books) but it is surprisingly excellent for a book which categorizes itself as a "beginner" reference. Definitely a worthwhile asset for even intermediate students of Japanese.

If you're trying to write Japanese for a pen pal, translating Japanese from your textbook, or studying Japanese alone and need a vocabulary, this book will be invaluable. Hiragana and katakana are used exclusively for the Japanese words; kanji spellings are added alongside when needed, which is even better than furigana because the hiragana alone will help you remember the actual pronunication. The book is loaded with helpful guides along many of the words to help you better understand English and Japanese meanings and homonyms and not confuse them. Overall, I would recommend it for any student.

This dictionary's only fault is from lack of a large vocabulary; if you're at the point where want that, you'll have to buy a full dictionary without the helpers.

This is the dictionary I use the most. It doesn't have as many words as other dictionaries, but the ability to look up words by the hiragana and katakana in the order they appear in Japanese is just so natural after you've learned the basics. You may become frustrated with other dictionaries after using this one because the layout is just so good. I especially like the example sentences given for some words because they help clarify which form to use to get the right meaning. The only other dictionary I have that I like even remotely as much is the "Kenkyusha's New College Japanese-English Dictionary (4th edition)" which I bought in Japan. I only wish that Oxford would make an expanded Japanese Dictionary. I would buy that in a heart beat.

If you're a beginner in Japanese language, this is your first dictionary.
Okay, no romanji. But if you're afraid of kana why are you trying to learn Japanese?
Go ahead, forget romanji and dive deeply in this beautiful language

Electronic dictionaries are really good for look up rare Japanese words. However, try searching for 'pants' in an electronic dictionary. You come up with 99 million entries. Same with the thick dictionaries like the Kodansha's. This is really nice because it usually gives just one or two words so you know what to use. Very useful for homework and writing essays.

I have learned more Japanese since purchasing this book than from tapes or any other book that I have. It is written in kana and kanji as ALL Japanese texts should be. This book is great!!

I'm not going to re-write what some of the other reviews have talked about in detail such as the format.

I'm just going to add that the book is well designed and useful IF you are JUST beginning in Japanese. I liked the layout and thought I could use it as a everyday dictionary (I live in Japan) but there are no entries for many of the basic words I want to look up.

Fair enough, I mean, they called it a starter's dictionary. It just turned out to be way simpler than I had expected.

So buy this if you are a beginner and want to use it to study, but do not buy it if your Japanese is any higher than that or if you are looking for a small general purpose Japanese dictionary.

I got this book because it's the one we use in my Japanese Class, my class was postponed for a few months for several reasons, but when I did use the book to find an English-Japanese translation, I discovered that 18 pages were blank. I did return the book to RJSwenson and he said they would credit my account, but it would be nice if they would send me a new one. I sent it back at my expense as I had lost the return shipper info. The return shipping cost me $8:89.

Gary Pealer

I am a new leaner of japanese study by my own and i find this dictionary very helpful. I gives you explainations and meaning of the respective katakana and hiragana word.

There's only 2 things that I was expecting but it was not delivered in this edition, well its starters edition.
1. There isnt kanji list but there's kanji associated with almost all words.
2. There's not pronouciation help with the words, you can check the hiragana and katakana list at the back but you need to turn front and back for it. They should have
"ai" meaning, explaination, kanji writing, pronouciation

But overall, it's a good guide for learners. worth buying. :)

This book is very limited. It is too basic and leaves out many important words. It is difficult to study Japanese when many of the words in my text book can't be found in this dictionary. Also, many of the entries from Japanese to English are vague and don't give a clear explanation of the word.