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Why do you need a kanji dictionary? What is your particular situation?
1) You are in Japan and you need to decipher the sounds and meanings of signs around you, but aren't really interested in the written language, since all you need is conversational abilities.
Then Kodansha's Kanji Lerner's Dictionary (not this one) will be fine fot you, since it writes japanese words in romaji, that is, you don't need to know how to read hiragana or katakana. Also, get a romanized dictionary (for deciphering what other people are saying).
2) You are studying Japanese to read manga, or text from the Internet, but not to write.
First of all, learn the kana. All manga onomatopeias and a high percent of all japanese script is in kana.Then you might consider either a free electronic dictionary, like Jim Breen's database together with Kanjibrowze, or this one along with Kodansha's furigana Japanese-English dictionary. Anyway, if you really want to become proficient at recognizing/searching kanji, buy Heisig's Remembering the Kanji 1. It can be the most rewarding and entertaining learning experience of your life. Once you know the meaning and correct stroke order of all the general-use kanji (will take you just a couple of months if you're motivated, and one month if you have all day), you can use Microsoft Japanese IME (can be easily installed under XP) facilities to input kanji to an electronic dictionary by means of hand-drawing. This is far swifter than searching by radical or stroke count in a paper dictionary. And with the Japanese IME you can also do these kind of searches. Also, an electronic dictionary is by far more complete than a paper one.
3) You want to read/write anything in Japanese and you really want to master the kanji.Read more ›
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The preface part of the book tells you what all the symbols used in the book mean, and how to read the definitions (e.g., this one [%] is for business terms). It also explains KUN and ON readings (that helps me every time), Jukugo compounds, statistical hints (not a cut and dry formula, because one doesn't exist) about when a kanji is being used for its ON/KUN reading. Furthermore, the terms Gojuon-jun, Joyo kanji, Okurigana, and Ateji are defined. Lastly, it gives a light treatment of radicals, phonetic and non-phonetic compounds, and a kanji learning strategy. Itâs not a very long preface, though. It is, however, concise, and prepares you for learning Kanji, and becoming literate - not just for using the book. After reading the preface to this book I knew without doubt that i wanted to use this one. The fat part of the book is straight forward. Occasionally I need to read up on a symbol or convention of the book. However, its extremely delightful to use. The dictionary is divided into 14 sections. Section 1 has all the kanji with radicals of 1 stroke, section 2 has all the kanji with radicals of 2 strokes,... and section 14 has kanji whose radicals have a stroke count of 14. Within each radical set in each section the kanji are ordered by increasing stroke count. So section 3 starts off with a radical with a stroke count of 3, then the all the kanji that use that radical are listed under it. The stroke count for the first Kanji can be as low as 3 (or stroke count of the radical) and go as high as 23 (I haven't seen one yet, but it says so in the preface - which i just referred to find out - see how easy it is to use?), then the next radical is introduced (stroke count of 3) and it begins again.Read more ›
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This is possibly the most useful Japanese dictionary. It allows lookup of Kanji by Radical, on/kun readings (kana), or total stroke number. It gives numerous compounds for each kanji, and includes rarely used kana readings. It shows the stroke order. It also has Business usage for each character. There is no romanji, so that is definitely a plus. And since it contains the Jouyou Kanji, most Kanji that you encounter will be in this dictionary. I highly recommend it to intermediate-advanced students of Japanese, or if you just wanna read some stuff, or build up your vocabulary. Looks nice as well.
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Seems to be essentially an updated version of "Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide: A New Character Dictionary for Students and Professionals" Just what I was looking for. The 1,945 common kanji in a compact dictionary that I can use for school. Has kanji with kana for pronouciations and English meaning. No messing around with Romanji. This is a blessing for me as my classes are using very little Romanji and it helps to just stay clear of it and get used to reading things in kanji/kana. Very happy with it.
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While this is not a terrible dictionary, it has two major flaws:
First, for each kanji it only lists compounds that begin with the given kanji. If the kanji happens to be an affix (attached to the ends of words), then no compounds will be listed.
Second, it does not give all the connotations that a single kanji will have. Why is the kanji for 'north' used in the word for 'defeat'? This dictionary won't tell you.
It uses romaji instead of kana, but don't let that deter you; you'll get plenty of practice reading kana outside of your kanji dictionary. It's learning kanji that's the hard part.
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![GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese [With CDROM] (Japanese Edition) (English and Japanese Edition)](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FXpMajKOL._AC_UL160_SR116,160_.jpg)
