Kodansha's Effective Japanese Usage Dictionary: A Concise Explanation of Frequently Confused Words and Phrases

Rating:
Summary: needs revision
Review: This has the beginnings of a great usage dictionary, but a lot of the differences among the words are very much not clear. It would have been nice if it gave more attention to detailing precisely why and how certain terms differ instead of merely giving definitions of words and example usages, but leaving it up to the reader to try and figure out what makes the words different. You will likely still wind up consulting another dictionary or your local Nihonjin for a clarification on some of the more poorly differentiated terms.

Bottom line: Not stellar. But all things considered, probably still worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: needs revision
Review: This has the beginnings of a great usage dictionary, but a lot of the differences among the words are very much not clear. It would have been nice if it gave more attention to detailing precisely why and how certain terms differ instead of merely giving definitions of words and example usages, but leaving it up to the reader to try and figure out what makes the words different. You will likely still wind up consulting another dictionary or your local Nihonjin for a clarification on some of the more poorly differentiated terms.

Bottom line: Not stellar. But all things considered, probably still worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: A Dictionary of the Subtle Nuances of Japanese Words
Review: When I stumbled across this book in a bookstore in Japan I was pleasantly surprised. Up till that point, everyday I struggled to answer my questions regarding words with similar meanings in Japanese. This book helped to answer many of my questions by grouping those words with related meanings into different sections and by providing detailed explanation about how the various wordsf meanings differ. For example, this book groups the words like gsamui,h gtsumetai,h and gsuzushiih into a single section, and then gives you examples for the correct usage of each word. Also, in my opinion the words and grammar contained in this book are not for beginners, but rather for intermediate to advanced students who are struggling with the subtleties of the language. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that this book is bilingual; all text has equivalent Japanese and English copies, so this book is good for Japanese native speakers as well. Overall, I have no complaints about this book (except that I wish it was published earlier when I started studying Japanese).