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Best Japanese English dictionary? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 5845 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 1 of 20 28 May 2011 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am wondering what the Japanese learners in this forum have to say about what is the best (paper) J-E dictionary over all, regardless of level?
I have looked at Random house, but it has romanji, which I do not want in a J-E dictionary. Kodansha's Furigana dictionaries on the other hand seem small and limited. At the other end, the massive Kenkyusha's dictionary is really expensive and above my needs. I am willing to invest in it however if there is no other option. Any suggestions? Edited by irrationale on 28 May 2011 at 12:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4977 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 2 of 20 28 May 2011 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What about the "The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary [hardcover]"?
If I'm not mistaken, there should also be a cheaper "paperback" version ;) Have a look on Amazon, I'm pretty sure you can find it! Edited by Fabrizio on 28 May 2011 at 1:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5259 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 3 of 20 28 May 2011 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you really want a paper dictionary, the big kenkyusha is the gold standard. It also
uses romaji, but it's not a big deal. However, if you can cope with an online dictionary, there are none better than http://www.alc.co.jp/ In my opinion, this is ten times better than the best paper dictionary. Type in any word, in either English or Japanese, and see tens, sometimes hundreds, of example sentences using the word in every imaginable context. And it's completely free. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5777 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 20 28 May 2011 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't think any paper J-E dictionaries I've seen match up to free online alternatives. It can be frustrating, because I don't want to be stuck to my PC for every aspect of my study. I did buy a J-E dictionary that runs on my DS and it's pretty convenient but the online alternatives are still more exhaustive and ultimately more useful.
I have the Kodansha Furigana dictionary which I like for the layout, avoidance of romaji and the helpful example sentences, but as you say it is kind of limited with only 30,000 or so entries - although it's still quite useful if you want to check useage for common yet tricky words. I tend to just use it for browsing. If I simply need to check the meaning of a word I still turn to the online alternatives. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 5845 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 5 of 20 29 May 2011 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I have a question then; do Japanese-English paper dictionaries for Japanese people use romanji? I just assumed they didn't.
So what is a character dictionary? It only contains kanji and is for looking up words that start with an unknown kanji? Thanks for all the suggestions so far, I am looking in to them right now. I am just wondering here; what do the Japanese use? Surely they have English Japanese paper dictionaries as well, what do they look like? I would rather just use what a native uses, or look up Japanese words like a native would look them up. Edited by irrationale on 29 May 2011 at 2:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5777 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 20 29 May 2011 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I did ask a Japanese friend if they could recommend a J-E dictionary aimed at native Japanese speakers but he was unwilling to do so. He said that most of the volumes he had used provided rather unnatural Japanese translations, particularly for idiomatic expressions.
Although the cartridge I have for my DS uses the ジーニアス英和辞典 and it seems that even the English is rather strange in a lot of cases, I can't be sure about the quality of the Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5259 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 7 of 20 30 May 2011 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, Japanese-English dictionaries for Japanese people use Japanese, of course, but I also am not aware of an all-round brilliant dictionary that everyone uses. In fact, in my English teaching days almost everyone used a handheld electronic dictionary with a stylus for drawing kanji. The Nelson is just a kanji dictionary. You use it to find kanji from their radicals and stroke counts. It used to be invaluable, but the only time I use it these days is when the "tegaki paddo" on my computer doesn't recognize the kanji I'm trying to draw. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5176 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 8 of 20 30 May 2011 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would definitely go with an electronic dictionary. They contain so much more info and are so much faster and easier to carry. I just got this one. They are pricier, though.
As for online, I really like tangorin.com. If you like SRS (I don't), you can import words into a deck right from the search, and there are links at the bottom to take you to other resources, such as alc (as mentioned before) when you want more examples, for instance. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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