Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: The BEST dictionary for beginning to intermediate students
Review: As a North American living and working in Tokyo for the past three years, it was inevitable that I'd come to study Japanese. After learning hiragana and katakana (the foundation for further language studies), I soon realized I needed a good dictionary to help build my vocabulary.

Unfortunately, all of the dictionaries I found were either "romanized" (a step backwards once kana has been learned), lacking an adequate base of intelligent vocabulary, or filled with advanced kanji intended for native speakers.

I was thrilled to find this excellent "furigana" dictionary by Kodansha. Furigana (small kana printed above the kanji entries which allow even beginning students to read the Chinese characters) has been provided for each entry. This was exactly what I'd been looking for.

The 14,000-word basic vocabulary has proven a great starting point for my studies, and I've come to rely on this book as a vital supplement for conversation, homework and continuing studies. Sensical definitions in clear English, along with sample sentences in modern Japanese makes this dictionary indispensible. The publisher's companion volume, "Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary," is also highly recommended. Both books feature a basic grammar explanation and useful index containing "counters" and other related information.

In Tokyo, I was able to get the 1998 and 1997 editions, respectively, for each volume, and they're both soft cover editions--a plus over the hard cover versions. Overall, a must have for all beginning to intermediate students of Japanese.

Rating:
Summary: pésimo para el que NO sabe de escritura japonesa
Review: Cuando compre este libro y el otro que esta en venta de japones al ingles no pense que no iba a estar ordenado por orden de palabras romanizadas, es decir, si quieres buscar una palabra es estos diccionarios y no conoces la escritura japonesa, mejor no lo compres ya que sera una tarea titanica.

aparte que tiene muy pocas entradas para lo que vale.

chao

Rating:
Summary: Best for learners of Japanese (who know furigana/Katakana)
Review: I believe in this dictionary, and it's companion Japanese-English dictionary, because Japanese is NOT written in Romanji. Romanji is a convienance, but once you learn hiragana and katakana, even if you don't know ANY kanji, you should use it. So, I never buy any dictionaries that don't use furigana.

The disadvantage of these books is that there are two of them, and there aren't as many words. I do know that Kodansha sells a combined version, but I'm not sure they sell it outside of Japan. The big ADVANTAGE, however, is that there are several example sentences that show how to use the word. If it's a verb, they'll usually have a sentence that shows if it's an u-verb (ie, kirimasu) or a ru-verb (ie, kimasu).

If you really need a LOT of words, ie, you're translating something, try Jim Breen's webpage, it's free and very comprehensive.

Rating:
Summary: Best for learners of Japanese (who know furigana/Katakana)
Review: I believe in this dictionary, and it's companion Japanese-English dictionary, because Japanese is NOT written in Romanji. Romanji is a convienance, but once you learn hiragana and katakana, even if you don't know ANY kanji, you should use it. So, I never buy any dictionaries that don't use furigana.

The disadvantage of these books is that there are two of them, and there aren't as many words. I do know that Kodansha sells a combined version, but I'm not sure they sell it outside of Japan. The big ADVANTAGE, however, is that there are several example sentences that show how to use the word. If it's a verb, they'll usually have a sentence that shows if it's an u-verb (ie, kirimasu) or a ru-verb (ie, kimasu).

If you really need a LOT of words, ie, you're translating something, try Jim Breen's webpage, it's free and very comprehensive.

Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners!
Review: I have just started studying Japanese and am finding this dictionary very useful. All entries are written in hiragana and katakana, so you must learn them to use this dictionary. This is good because understanding hiragana and katakana are fundamental to understanding Japanese.

There are a couple of things wrong with this dictionary, but nothing major. A few words you expect to be included are not, sometimes the furigana is very small and hard to read (make sure you have your glasses) and there are a couple of typos, which is something you don`t expect in a dictionary.

On the whole though, an excellent book. It is a nice portable size and beautifully presented in a leather binding. Highly recommended for beginners. I would give it four and a half stars, but the system won`t let me, so I`ll give it four, as five is perfection.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Dictionary for Beginners
Review: Kodansha's Furigana dictionaries are simply a few of the best Japanese<->English dictionaries I have seen on the market, especially for students of Japanese. The English-Japanese volume of this wonderful dictionary is simply indispensable to beginners of the language once they have mastered the two kana scripts, viz, hiragana and katakana, as would be expected of any serious student, since the dictionary does not contain any Romanised entries.

The entries comprise a basic vocabulary of some 14,000 of the most commonly used words in English. The Japanese equivalent follows the head word, written in kanji and kana. One great feature about this dictionary particularly valuable to beginners who may not know many kanji is that all the kanjis, be they in the entries or the examples, have small kanas printed over them indicating their pronunciation, i.e., furigana. The definitions themselves are up-to-date, clear, being written for English speakers, and most entries contain illustrative example sentences indicating of usage. An appendix listing verb conjugations is included.

The book itself is physically well produced, with a soft vinyl cover. The paper is of good quality, and the print is clear without being too small. Moreover, the size of the book is neither so large nor so heavy as to become inconvenient to the user.

In summary, then, the Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese dictionary is a great boon to any serious beginning or intermediate student of Japanese. For the advance learner, however, its limited scope of some sixteen thousand words makes it perhaps not quite as useful. Two of its features, i.e., doing away with romaji (Romanised script), which is very irritating to users familiar with kana, by using kana instead (as the Japanese would, in any case), and indicating the reading of all kanjis with furigana, sets this dictionary apart from others in the market, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any serious student embarking on a study of the Japanese language.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Dictionary for Beginners
Review: Kodansha's Furigana dictionaries are simply a few of the best Japanese<->English dictionaries I have seen on the market, especially for students of Japanese. The English-Japanese volume of this wonderful dictionary is simply indispensable to beginners of the language once they have mastered the two kana scripts, viz, hiragana and katakana, as would be expected of any serious student, since the dictionary does not contain any Romanised entries.

The entries comprise a basic vocabulary of some 14,000 of the most commonly used words in English. The Japanese equivalent follows the head word, written in kanji and kana. One great feature about this dictionary particularly valuable to beginners who may not know many kanji is that all the kanjis, be they in the entries or the examples, have small kanas printed over them indicating their pronunciation, i.e., furigana. The definitions themselves are up-to-date, clear, being written for English speakers, and most entries contain illustrative example sentences indicating of usage. An appendix listing verb conjugations is included.

The book itself is physically well produced, with a soft vinyl cover. The paper is of good quality, and the print is clear without being too small. Moreover, the size of the book is neither so large nor so heavy as to become inconvenient to the user.

In summary, then, the Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese dictionary is a great boon to any serious beginning or intermediate student of Japanese. For the advance learner, however, its limited scope of some sixteen thousand words makes it perhaps not quite as useful. Two of its features, i.e., doing away with romaji (Romanised script), which is very irritating to users familiar with kana, by using kana instead (as the Japanese would, in any case), and indicating the reading of all kanjis with furigana, sets this dictionary apart from others in the market, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any serious student embarking on a study of the Japanese language.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for Students of Japanese
Review: let's face it, we all forget how to pronounce a certain kanji at one point. this dictionary is better than the rest because a) there is no romanji b) there is kana and kanji for every every listing c) the furigana (how to pronounce the kanji) is written above the kanji and d) it gives clear examples of how to use the word/phrase/expression in a sentence.

this dictionary really helped me throughout my travels in japan, especially when I couldn't remember how to pronounce a certain kanji that my electronic dictionary gave me. it has also helped me throughout my long years of japanese language courses. since the grammar patterns are included, my writing improved. i was not just learning new vocabulary and not knowing how/when to use it.

i should also mention that the cultural context within this dictionary is superb. many english to japanese dictionaries will simply give you the translation, but not include when one should use that phrase/word in japan. kodansha's furigana dictionaries clearly explain that.

maybe not a great dictionary for the true beginner (and especially someone who can not read kana or does not care to learn much kanji), but this is one great dictionary for true students of japanese.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST English-Japanese dictionary...
Review: that I have used. I began learning Japanese in a University year abroad program in Fukuoka. We learned hirigana in the first week and from then on, I threw out my romanji dictionary and used this dictionary until it was dog-eared (which is hard to do, since the quality of the binding, cover material, and paper is so high). It gives very clear usage examples after each entry, which really helped me with class essay assignments and in my casual speech with friends. I suppose the limited entries would not make it the ideal dictionary for the advanced Japanese student, but as a relative beginner, I can highly recommend it for other beginners and intermediate students.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for Students of Japanese
Review: This dictionary is essential for students of japanese because it uses furigana (small hiragana and katakana characters that explain pronunciation and spelling) above the kanji characters in its definitions. Also, and perhaps more importantly, it thoroughly explains the usage of various words by a generous assortment of sample sentences. This is especially helpful with short words like "but" and "if" that receive very little treatment in standard pocket dictionaries. I have one major gripe with this dictionary, that I hope the editors will fix in the next editions. The dictionary is definitely not comprehensive, and there is FAR too much space wasted on translating "loan words" from english. For example, if you look up "helicopter", the loan word "herikoputaa" is listed. Although this might help the learner find the standard katakana-spelling, it is really wasted space in a dictionary of this kind, especially when the katakana spelling system is relatively easy to figure out for oneself. I suggest removing the majority of loan-words and replacing them with more Japanese vocabulary. When a certain word does not appear in the dictionary, then you can be reasonably confident that it has a katakana-english loan word. For this reason, this otherwise excellent dictionary loses a star. Still, its format and ease-of-use make it indispensible.