The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary

by Jack Halpern (Author)

105 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-4770028556

ISBN-10: 4770028555

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There is a newer edition of this item:

The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded
$30.96
(237)
In Stock.

The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary answers the urgent need for an easy-to-use kanji dictionary compact enough to be easily carried around, yet detailed enough to satisfy the practical needs of the beginning and intermediate learner.

Its basic goal is to give the learner a thorough understanding of kanji by providing instant access to a wealth of useful information on the meanings, readings, and compounds. Normally, the learner must memorize numerous compounds as unrelated units. A unique feature of this dictionary that
overcomes this difficulty is the core meaning, a concise keyword that defines the dominant sense of each character, followed by detailed character meanings and numerous compounds that clearly show how thousands of building blocks are combined to form countless compound words.

Another unique feature is the System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP), an indexing system that enables the user to locate characters as quickly and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries.

Modern linguistic theory has been effectively integrated with sophisticated information technology to produce the most useful kanji learner's dictionary ever compiled. For the first time, learners have at their fingertips a wealth of information that is linguistically accurate, easy to use, and
carefully adapted to their practical needs.

FEATURES
o 2,230 entry characters, including all the kanji in the Joyo and Jinmei Kanji lists
o 41,000 senses for 31,300 words and word elements show how each character contributes to the meanings of compounds
o 1,200 homophones with core meanings explain differences between closely related characters
o 386 variant forms used in prewar literature and in names
o 1,945 stroke order diagrams show you how to write each kanji stroke by stroke
o 7,200 character readings, including name readings
o Over 2,000 cross-references and five appendixes give instant access to a mass of useful reference data

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Up-to-date, reliable, and easy to use … this beautifully designed dictionary meets the needs of a wide range of Japanese language learners."—Y.-H. Tohsaku, President, American Association of Teachers of Japanese

"A must for those who wish to overcome the obstacles posed by the study of kanji … an excellent tool that allows even beginners to look up kanji with ease."—Akito Ozaki, President, The Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language

About the Author

Jack Halpern is the CEO of the CJK Dictionary Institute in Japan, which specializes in the compilation of CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and Arabic lexical databases and is one of the world’s prime sources of CJK dictionaries. A lexicographer by profession, Halpern spent sixteen years compiling the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary published in the U.S. by NTC/McGraw-Hill in 1994.
As a research fellow at Showa Women’s University in Tokyo, he was the editor-in-chief of several kanji dictionaries for learners, which have become standard reference works. Halpern has published over twenty books, including The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary: Revised and Expanded available in early 2013, as well as numerous articles. He has given over 600 public lectures on Japanese language and culture, and presented several dozen papers at international conferences. Jack Halpern has lived in Japan for over 30 years. He was born in Germany and lived in six countries including France, Brazil, and the U.S. An avid polyglot, he has studied fifteen languages (fluent in ten).

Product details

Publisher : Kodansha USA (February 1, 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 1008 pages
ISBN-10 : 4770028555
ISBN-13 : 978-4770028556
Item Weight : 1.89 pounds
Dimensions : 7.1 x 1.7 x 5.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,853,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #239 in Japanese Language Instruction (Books)
- #6,501 in Reference (Books)
- #8,061 in Foreign Dictionaries & Thesauruses

Customer Reviews:
105 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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TSX

Handy but limited

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

Let's be honest, no one likes learning kanji. Japanese themselves dislike learning kanji. And kanji dictionaries, being notoriously irksome, do little to make the experience more enjoyable or easier. While I can't say that The Kanji Learner's Dictionary (KLD) instilled more joy in my kanji endeavors, KLD did make learning kanji more accessible. Jack Halpern's SKIP method amounts to classifying kanji into four kinds of geometrical patterns: left-right, up-down, enclosed, and solid. The method makes sense to a certain degree but once you hit the "enclosed" and "solid" category the methodology appears less and less intuitive. However, the most helpful aspect of KLD is not its indexing methodology but that it lists miscellaneous compounds for each kanji. So not only are you given a definition of a particular kanji, you are also given vocabulary (a plus for beginners). I should also mention that KLD includes stroke order for every kanji and readings for kanji that can be read as names (e.g. [Ryuu] or [Jin]).

The main downside to KLD is its limits. KLD is primarily a beginning to intermediate dictionary and will lose utility at the advanced level, especially if you are reading a lot. If you're looking to become fluent in Japanese you will have to graduate to a heftier dictionary and students intending to use Japanese at the academic level will invariably have to graduate to Japanese dictionaries. Both of these, unfortunately, will use the radical indexing system. Those looking to graduate from KLD (but still use SKIP) should consider Mr. Halpern's more comprehensive NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary and those looking to acclimate themselves to the traditional system should buy the authoritative The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary . Overall, KLD is great for those still learning and those becoming more proficient. It is also the most comprehensive and compact kanji dictionary available to students and easily the most affordable. It's been a few years since I bought KLD and even though I now use the Nelson dictionary, I still occasionally turn to KLD when I don't feel like lugging out the Nelson.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sitting in Seattle

Must-have dictionary for beginner-intermediate taking Japanese in classroom

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2007

Verified Purchase

As a beginning-to-intermediate Japanese language student, I've found the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary (KLD) to be a fabulous resource. Although I have several kanji dictionaries, this is the only one that I use on a regular basis.

Other reviewers have pointed out many of the advantages. For my part, what I've found to be most helpful are the following features. First, there are several ways to look up any kanji. If you know the pronunciation, you can use that. If not, do it by radical; or by the SKIP method, if you know how to count the strokes. I usually find it easiest to do by pronunciation if known, or by radical if not -- the dictionary is small enough to scan the list of matching kanji by radical pretty easily, and I prefer that to counting strokes. But the key point is that with multiple methods, something will work for everyone.

Second, it has a great visual design. Simply put, this dictionary comes as close to being "beautiful" as any dictionary can. Once you've located the kanji of interest, the clean design makes it easy to find the information you need, and different sets of meanings are broken out very nicely. I usually get pulled in by browsing through the compounds, discovering interesting sets of meanings that are fun to read and think about. This is both educational and fun (at least for me).

Third, it has exact & cleanly presented stroke order for every kanji. Instead of simply numbering the strokes like many dictionaries (if they show stroke order at all), the KLD actually shows them in consecutive sequence, one at a time. So it's very easy to see the exact order and how the kanji is built up. Although stroke order is not that hard to learn, I've been surprised at how often I forget it or get confused, especially in characters with lots of right angles. KLD always sets me straight and is my first place to go for a checkup on order.

All of these features make it perfect as a supplement for classroom learning, because you can easily leverage whatever information you have (e.g., radicals, pronunciation), and fill in the knowledge you need (stroke order, meaning, compounds, etc.)

It is important to note two things that the dictionary does NOT do. It does not provide translation from English; you'll need an English-to-Japanese dictionary to do that. Also, it does not provide any learning method or meaningful didactic sequence of kanji; you'll need either classes or another kanji learning system in order actually to learn the kanji.

If your goal is to supplement another learning system, are at beginner or intermediate stage, and you want to learn kanji better, in more depth, or fill in gaps in your other methods, then I highly recommend KLD. Ganbatte kudasai!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

arleas

The SKIP Method is invaluable for finding the meaning of a Kanji

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

If you don't know the reading of a kanji, the SKIP method is a breakthrough. You just have to learn the basic guidelines to how to separate the kanji into the various groups (Left/Right, Up/Down, Bordered and solid) and then you count the strokes to the various parts. For example 難　would be a type 1 (Left/right) kanji, so then you'd count the strokes on the left half, and then count the strokes on the right half... this would give you a number like 1-10-8.

You'd look that number up in the book just like you'd look through the alphabet in an English dictionary, and when you arrived at the page you'd see part of the kanji along the side of the page at the top to help you find the kanji in question and then you're there. That wasn't quite so 難しい after all...

Included with the basic meaning of the kanji are the readings, the stroke order, and common compound words you'd find the kanji in. Extremely easy for a beginner to grasp. I used mine so much that the slipcover wore out and the paperback cover underneath started to wear out as well.. This is a book you'll want to keep with you for quick reference.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. D. S. Sandy

Superb Dictionary

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2012

Verified Purchase

To be honest, i dont have much to compare it to. Other than the prices of similar dictionaries. And to be honest, it seems to beat the competition in that department.
Ive been studying Japanese for around a year, and having this among my many books is a must.
There are alot of online resources for languages now but i personally love having hard copies there with me. This book is easy to follow and the quick reference/stroke order setup works well if your already fairly familier with Kanji. The stroke order that is displayed next to each Kanji also seems accurate and is easy to follow.
I can only review it from a beginners point of view but i would definatley recommend this to anyone studying Japanese. My teacher was quite impressed with it too and she has some books i couldnt afford if i saved up for a month!

B. Vazquez

Oustanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

Outstanding learner's dictionary. The SKIP system takes a bit of getting used to, but then it shows its genius helping you find any kanji in seconds. Best of all though, the generic meaning of kanji provided, that applies to multiple words: not so much a definition as the flavour (aji') common to multiple, seemingly unrelated words.
The book is beautifully edited, very helpful and a joy to just browse for pleasure.
Highly recommended

Dsf

very useful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2011

Verified Purchase

This dictionary provides the student of Japanese with an easy to use and informative guide to the most frequently used Kanji. It is a scholarly work which wears its learning lightly and has been a most welcome resource.

Excellent.

tomasgueifao

This dictionary helps a lot with the kanji strugle and ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

This dictionary helps a lot with the kanji strugle and it also can be a way to help you memorize more kanji

Weald of Kent

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2016

Verified Purchase

Quick delivery and good product.

See all reviews

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