| Forum Index » Chat Room » Japanese dictionary recommendations |
|
Page 1 of 2 1, 2 Next |
|
| Author |
Message |
| ketsuko |
 Posted: May 06, 2007 10:35 am |
 |
|
Happy Days
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 137
|
hey hey!
hmm just want to ask for those who are studying japanese out there, what dictionaries would you recommend? i've looked around borders and kinokuniya and have seen a few, but don't know which is good.
Advice? 
arigatou ne! |
|
|
 |
|
| davedim |
| Posted: May 06, 2007 11:39 am |
|
|
フレンジャー
Joined: 24 Oct 2006
Posts: 934
|
| Kodansha's Basic English-Japanese Dictionary and Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide. |
|
|
|
|
| Tatsuka Ito |
| Posted: May 06, 2007 1:49 pm |
|
|
フレンジャー
Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 918
Location: Surrey,Canada
|
I have the kodansha dictionary.
sorry to say davedim, but its no good
Random house is actually pretty good, but if you dont take good care of it, it falls apart
茅野直子’ｓ ”All about particles" is pretty useful
Tuttles "kanji and kana" cant be beat either.
For learning, well, my textbooks are all in japanese >< |
|
|
|
|
| Celsius005 |
| Posted: May 07, 2007 5:03 pm |
|
|
Planetarium
Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 685
Location: USA
|
^ I second the Random House dictionary. Also I recommend Carol and Nobuo Akiyama's Japanese Idioms. Of course it's not entirely necessary but it wouldn't hurt to have a book full of set Japanese phrases.  |
|
|
|
|
| ketsuko |
| Posted: May 07, 2007 8:07 pm |
|
|
Happy Days
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 137
|
| ahhh arigatou ne! i'll go shop around. (: |
|
|
|
|
| Nathanael Law |
| Posted: May 08, 2007 4:59 pm |
|
|
桃ノ花ビラ
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 20
Location: Alberta, Canada
|
Most of the J-E and E-J dictionaries are rather poor. They tend not to cite examples to provide context, and generally offer little explanation, unlike a native dictionary (in any language). There are exceptions, but they're more expensive.
If you don't need a text dictionary, I highly recommend using スペースアルク：英辞郎検索結果 (ALC) and the Yahoo!辞書.
ALC isn't so much a dictionary as a database of natural (much more so than those in EDICT) examples. E.g., if you look up 肥満 it returns 237 example terms and sentences that use 肥満 along with English translations of each. It works for both English and Japanese, so you can enter "obese" and it will list 49 example terms and sentences along with Japanese translations.
Yahoo!辞書 is even better (albeit for slightly different purposes). You can look up words in the 大辞林 J-J dictionary, the 大辞泉 J-J dictionary, プログレッシブ和英中辞典 J-E dictionary, ニューセンチュリー和英辞典 J-E dictionary, the プログレッシブ英和中辞典 E-J dictionary, and the 新グローバル英和辞典 E-J dictionary. It's an amazing resource. If you're like me and don't quite read enough to use a J-J dictionary, it works very nicely with rikaichan. If you'd rather use E-J and J-E dictionaries, the ones here are very good compared to most and often list example sentences.
Personally, I've pretty much given up on paper dictionaries. If I had to live without an Internet connection, I'd pick up Kenkyusha's J-E Dictionary a.k.a. the Green Goddess, but it's a pretty penny. More accurately, about 50,000 pretty pennies. <_<;;
[edit: Added more links.] |
|
|
|
|
| ketsuko |
| Posted: May 10, 2007 7:21 am |
|
|
Happy Days
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 137
|
| thanks! (: i'm sure your recommendations will help lots with my studies! (: |
|
|
|
|
| .::carlito::. |
| Posted: May 10, 2007 7:52 am |
|
|
クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 14 Oct 2006
Posts: 3609
Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
Yeah, I'm practising Japanese and maybe it will help me with my studies too. Thanks!  |
|
|
|
|
| mangomalte |
| Posted: May 10, 2007 10:06 am |
|
|
クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 3579
Location: Sweden
|
my cousin in japan got Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jite, an english/japanese japanese/english kanji dictionary/translator. and it seems like it's really good. often i end up looking at kanjis and i don't have a clue what they mean or how they sound, so being able to write it down and get the translation seems really nice.  there's example sentances for each word too. and it's small. i'm even considering buying myself a Nintendo DS because of this...  |
|
|
|
|
| del |
| Posted: Jun 27, 2007 4:47 am |
|
|
大好きだよ。
Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 211
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
|
|
|
|
| Tatsuka Ito |
| Posted: Jun 27, 2007 2:00 pm |
|
|
フレンジャー
Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 918
Location: Surrey,Canada
|
Alc, and Yahoo are the best if you can understand enough japanese to use them （This is especially true for the Yahoo！辞書） |
|
|
|
|
| felixlaumon |
| Posted: Jun 28, 2007 1:30 am |
|
|
さくらんぼ
Joined: 03 Feb 2007
Posts: 36
Location: Hong Kong
|
|
|
|
| ChocolateMesher |
| Posted: Jun 28, 2007 6:36 am |
|
|
金魚花火
Joined: 31 Dec 2006
Posts: 140
Location: Makakilo, HI
|
|
|
|
| mangomalte |
| Posted: Jun 28, 2007 6:47 pm |
|
|
クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 3579
Location: Sweden
|
agreed. just some days ago i discovered the Multiradical Kanji section, and i love it! if you're sitting with kanjis having no idea how they're pronounced or what they mean, this is really a great help.
i also found out about this awesome firefox extention: rikaichan.
install it, enable it and just hold the marker over any japanese text and you get a box translating the word for you popping up. check it out, it's really cool.  there's also a look-up bar where you can search for words in both japanese and english (using the WWWJDIC dictionary), which means you don't have to be online to use that dictionary. and it's pretty convenient too. i recommend it. |
|
|
|
|
| ChocolateMesher |
| Posted: Jun 28, 2007 7:59 pm |
|
|
金魚花火
Joined: 31 Dec 2006
Posts: 140
Location: Makakilo, HI
|
mangomalte wrote:
i also found out about this awesome firefox extention: rikaichan.
install it, enable it and just hold the marker over any japanese text and you get a box translating the word for you popping up. check it out, it's really cool. there's also a look-up bar where you can search for words in both japanese and english (using the WWWJDIC dictionary), which means you don't have to be online to use that dictionary. and it's pretty convenient too. i recommend it.
Thats really helpful and convenient. I suggest anyone who is learning japanese to install that. I've been using it for a while now. |
|
|
|
|
|
