Customer Reviews

Webster's New World Japanese Dictionary

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As a Japanese student of 3 yrs, I have learned quite a lot of words. But one thing I found about this book is that it doesn't give you all the known translations for some common words. Such as the word "Bakana", which can also mean impossible, that translation for the word just isn't there. Out of all the Japanese to English and vise versa dictionaries I've used, I recomend the Random House Dictionary. Although it lacks things, just as all dictionaries do, it still gives many different translations for their words that other dictionaries just don't do. And don't be fooled into buying this book just because it's by the well-known Webster, go by content.

Everytime I search a word within this dictionary: it hasn't been included! An example: the word "aquarium"... There are others lack: no country names & no city names!
Go for another dictionary with 50'000 entries, this one is around 15'000 (evaluation, since the number of entries is not advertised by the publisher, a good sign).....

It's frustrating when you keep trying to look up words, and the dictionary simply doesn't have them. I looked up "iie" ("no" in Japanese) to see if it had the Hiragana for it --it doesn't have it! It doesn't have the word for NO in the Japanese-English part of the dictionary!?! Honestly, if I were writing a dictionary, YES and NO would probably be the first words I would add.
A popular anime series is Midori no Hibi. When I looked up Hibi, it says "cracked, chipped". So I should translate this as Green Chipped?! (the correct translation is Green Days). You could say, "oh, this is a small dictionary for casual use" and forgive the lack of words, except it's missing definitions for the words it DOES have, and doesn't have some of the most common words you are likely to hear.

When beginning to learn a new language, one needs a good basic dictionary that is simple to use, clear to read and not too expensive. This edition serves the purpose well, and is only slightly more expensive than the "Compact" version in the Webster's New World editions--while having alot more content, and it is still in the mass market paperback size which is convenient to carry and travel with.

The English to Japanese translations has the English word in bold, then the Romanized Hepburn/Hebonshiki which is most commonly used, then the hiragana/katakana characters. The Japanes to English portion uses the Romanized version in bold, then the characters, then the American English translation. A nice clear format, but it is important to note that the Americanized English is used, so if you are used to the "Queen's English" it is a little confusing...