Job Discussion Forums

[milesdenman]

Hi, i'm learning Japanese at the moment and was wondering if anybody could recommend a good Japanese dictionary.
I've tried a search of the forum, but didn't see anything, maybe i wasn't looking in the right place.
What types of dictionarys are there?
I'm after one that uses romaji, as i'm a beginner just starting out.
Thanks for any help, (no thanks for any sarcastic comments!).

[canuck]

Electronic dictionary --> Canon WordTank
Romaji is evil. Kill the crutch. Learn hiragana.

[wolfman]

http://www.amazon.com/Martins-Concise-Japanese-Dictionary-English-Japanese/dp/0804819122/sr=1-1/qid=1162942698/ref=sr_1_1/103-6462704-0414242?ie=UTF8&s=books

I have this one and it's romanji.

The cover picture Amazon has on this one is different from the one I have, but the ISBN is the same.

[opalgrav]

I agree with canuck. Hiragana really isn't that hard, and you should be able to learn it in a day or two.

Oh, and thanks canuck; I was trying to find a good electronic dictionary myself.

[canuck]

[Venti]

[Glenski]

I will second Venti's recommendation for Random House. Still have mine after 9 years.

For a kanji dictionary, I'd recommend getting Halpern's Kanji Learner's Dictionary. If you can count strokes and recognize a few radicals, you can use it to look up any kanji. The trouble I've found with electronic dictionaries is that you have to know the romaji pronunciation or hiragana spelling to input the data. Catch-22 when that's the unknown facing you in the first place. Same with paper J-E dictionaries. I can wade through the hiragana to find the English meaning, but if I can't pronounce the kanji that's provided. Equally so is when I'm using an E-J dictionary.

[Rorschach]

I started learning Japanese with a Canon G50 Wordtank. A little outdated now but definitely a great dictionary - the ability to search by stroke count and radical plus a kanji writer have made it indispensable for me (especially in comparison to the EX-Word dictionaries which are generally better featured but are more expensive and lack the kanji writer). If you're on a budget about 20000yen will buy you the Wordtank G55 (updated version of the G50 with more words and the option to use furigana). As mentioned, get away from romanji as soon as possible - it will only hurt you in the long run. The sooner you learn hiragana and katakana (equally important IMO) the easier it will be to acquire the language.

[milesdenman]

Thanks for all of the replies.
I've also heard that 'Japanese-English Character dictionary' by Andrew Nelson is good.
I have actually learnt the Kana, i've just found that pronunciating words written in Romaji easier, and more accurate as i'm not yet familiar with some of the differences between the kani used to write a word and the citation form of the word- if this makes sense, and at this stage of my learning correct pronunciation is what's most important.
As for the electronic dictionaries, how would i find out the meaning of 'sock' for example- would you type 'sock' into the dictionary in romaji or kana?
They sound good but a little pricey, would it be best to wait and buy one in Japan?

[Rorschach]

Electronic dictionaries have two inputs methods, romanji or kana. Romanji input is quicker for me because it feels like I am spelling the word but I know some who prefer the kana method. Definitely wait until you get to Japan to buy, there is a huge selection here and there are always sales on. Also, once you get used to identifying the sounds of the kana with the character it becomes easier than romanji to IMO. I reached the point last year that reading Japanese via romanji was clumsy and difficult.

Edit - ''sock' for example- would you type 'sock' into the dictionary in romaji or kana?"

You would type it into the E-J dictionary in English and it would give you the word in Japanese.

[furiousmilksheikali]

Just a small gripe of mine:

It's romaji not romanji.

[jesszilla]

If you have Internet access at home, you can try Jim Breen's WWWJDIC:

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

It has kana, romaji, and kanji search functions, and example sentences.

You can also download the JWPCE word processor for your computer, which includes a set of the WWWJDIC files. Then you can use the dictionary without the Internet.

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/japanese.html

If you're really a techno dweeb like us, you can get yourself a PDA instead of a WordTank or other electronic dictionary. You can then use the dictionary files, Japanese word processing, kanji flashcards, and all sorts of other cool toys. Check out Peter Rivard's website if you're interested. It takes some time to set up, but my partner and I have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. And if it sounds like too much work, he has a bunch of electronic dictionary recommendations.

http://www.peterrivard.com/Pages/japanese.html

[Rorschach]

[canuck]

[Rorschach]

If you take it from the kana spelling it is but my Japanese teacher has said it is acceptable to pronounce the (n).

The point I was making before - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanji