Japanese Dictionary

[MyrrhLynn]

So my sister is studying Japanese in school and she wants a Japanese/English dictionary for Christmas. The problem is I have no idea which ones are better then others. Does anyone have a favorite, or one they would recommend? I'm actually suprised she hasn't had to buy one for class already, so I think she's looking for something pretty thick and full of lots of good information. I tried looking through some of the older threads but the info was so random and scattered related to dictionaries that I gave up.


BTW I'm looking for a paper dictionary here, not electronic version. (I don't give THAt nice of Christmas presents. )

[Ashley]

My boyfriend uses the Oxford Japanese Dictionary, and I think he\'s pretty satisfied with it. I\'ve flipped through it a few times and it seems pretty good, but you do have to be pretty good with your kana (although, if she\'s actually taking the class I don\'t see why that would be a problem).

I know this isn\'t a dictionary, but another book I\'ve seen recommended to those studying Japanese is \"Breaking Into Japanese Literature.\" Basically it\'s some short stories/myths translated on one side and in the original Japanese on the other. Dunno if that will help, but maybe?

[EricTheFred]

I hate my Random House Webster's, which is missing tons of words (my most recent discovery is on the English-to-Japanese side, where it had entries for five days of the week, but lacked Saturday and Thursday IIRC). It's a Romanji-based dictionary, though, which is useful if your Kana sucks like mine does and you're trying to understand something from spoken Japanese. I would like to get opinions on the Kodansha versus the Oxford, the two Kana-based dictionaries I've been considering trading up to.

I have a super-old Kanji dictionary from Kodansha (fifties vintage!) that I found in a used book store. It is fantastic, but there's no guarantee the company is keeping up the same quality a half-century later.

A recommendation though. The book "All About Particles" is a very context specific 'dictionary', a guide on one of the most troublesome parts of the language for English speakers. I strongly recommend it even to relatively advanced Japanese-as-a-second-language speakers.

[ilikegir33]

Get the Oxford dictionary.

Thanks EricTheFred. I'll look for All About Particles.

[MyrrhLynn]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I ended up getting her the Oxford dictionary as suggested, I think she'll be okay because she has decent kana skills (it's her 3rd semester of the language after all...)

And thank you VERY much to EricTheFred for the suggestion about the particle book. I had no clue if she needed it or not, but I bought it anyway since it was pretty cheap. She was SO happy when she unwrapped it on Christmas since, it turns out that is one of the areas she struggles with the most. So she was more excited about that book then the dictionary.

[Aka-chan]

Great! Glad you found a good one. =D

When she gets into the crazy kanji, though, I've found Jim Breen's (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html) invaluable. You can search English, Japanese text, romanized Japanese, and kanji (by radicals, readings, meanings, etc.)--pretty much anything you'll need for modern Japanese. It even has a respectable amount of slang not found in regular dictionaries.

[kat-su-chan]

Hmm...this may be a little late but I have an electronic Japanese-English dictionary, an ex-word. I think it's Casio. Anyways, electronic is really the way to go for someone who is seriously studying the language, as they are amazing tools. However they can be costly...mine was around $500 but it also has a little pad you can write Kanji on and then the dictionary recognizes what you write. So it's pretty cool. Only problem is most electronic dictionaries are Japanese to English, so everything is in Japanese. If you don't know very much Japanese, or don't have someone who is teaching you Japanese or know someone who is either native or fluent in Japanese....it's kind of hard to get by and understand how to set it up and how everything works.
Anyways, hurray for Japanese!

[Aka-chan]

Hmm...this may be a little late but I have an electronic Japanese-English dictionary, an ex-word. I think it's Casio. Anyways, electronic is really the way to go for someone who is seriously studying the language, as they are amazing tools. However they can be costly...mine was around $500 but it also has a little pad you can write Kanji on and then the dictionary recognizes what you write. So it's pretty cool. Only problem is most electronic dictionaries are Japanese to English, so everything is in Japanese. If you don't know very much Japanese, or don't have someone who is teaching you Japanese or know someone who is either native or fluent in Japanese....it's kind of hard to get by and understand how to set it up and how everything works.
Anyways, hurray for Japanese!

A slightly cheaper alternative is to get the J-E/E-J dictionary "game" for the Nintendo DS. It's reasonably good quality (though pretty much just modern Japanese--if you want Meiji or older vocabulary, go with a good quality real electronic dictionary), and the bottom screen allows you to search kanji or even just words by writing with your stylus.

The catch: I have not found the game for sale outside of Japan. But DS games are region-free, so you don't have to buy a whole new DS if you get your hands on the game.

[Kaligraphic]

I've seen a J-E/E-J dictionary game like that at a local game store. Just look for a place that stocks imports.

[kat-su-chan]

Interesting, but not effective if you need to translate something ON THE SPOT! hahaha
hm or if you don't have DS whatever younameit thingermadoo. ^^

[Aka-chan]

[quote="kat-su-chan (post: 1187974)"]Interesting, but not effective if you need to translate something ON THE SPOT! hahaha ]
Except...that the DS and game are just as portable (if not moreso) than an electronic dictionary or a book. So I don't see what you're saying...

Granted, having it all in your head is the most portable...

[AsianBlossom]

A J-E E-J Nintendo DS game? O.O

Must...find...

[EricTheFred]

[quote="MyrrhLynn (post: 1186625)"]And thank you VERY much to EricTheFred for the suggestion about the particle book. I had no clue if she needed it or not, but I bought it anyway since it was pretty cheap. She was SO happy when she unwrapped it on Christmas since, it turns out that is one of the areas she struggles with the most. So she was more excited about that book then the dictionary. ]

You're welcome. I've found this book wonderfully useful, especially when trying to read dialog (where things are often not 'correct grammar') It's good to have a way to understand more about the various different ways particles can be applied.