Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese Dictionary

I've used 6 or 7 print Japanese dicionariers and 2 software Japanese dictionaries, and this dictionary is by far the most usefull that I have yet to find.It contains ample example sentences. It gives the verb type as RU, U or Irregular which is my favorite way of learning verbs. It gives the stem-form(pre masu form), the stem that -nai is added to for the negative present tense, and the TE form most of the time.The enteries in the Japanese-English section consist of the word in roomaji, followed kana, and then followed by kanji (if it exists or is ever used for the word.)There is a short grammar revies in the middle of the dictionary as well as a list of Japanese Political Parties and more.I recomend looking words found in the English-Japanese section up in the Japanese-English section for more information - particularly verb conjugations.In my opinion, the only other dictionary needed with this one for beginners to intermediate students, an equally ecconomical one, is "The Learners Kanji Dictionary" - if the student wishes to read/write Japanese.Most kanji show up good in the print.The only cavets that I have with this dictionary, and they are miniscule at that, are:1. The roomaji is different. Like the way I just wrote roomaji (without the single o with the macron for the long "o" vowel sound. For some reason they put the macron on the "'n". - None of this is that bothersome though it only took me a few minutes to get used to it.2. Second person pronouns, particularly "anata" and "anatatachi" which when used sometimes sound snide, rude, or makes the speaker sound more foreign - are not noted in the dictionary as such. These are used in Japanese speach occasionaly though. This information is found in many Japanese textbooks so it also does not present any problem.I realy love this dictionary and own two copies, and in my opinion it is a great dictionary for a begginer to an intermediate student.

The content of the dictionary, as has already been mentioned in another review, is pretty good, and by itself makes this a handy portable reference.I do, however, have a gripe about it that is like nails on a chalkboard to me, and that is the use of the double-vowel version of Modified Hepburn. Given the fact that the J-E dictionary IS romanized, then this can cause delay in finding words, if you aren't sure if a word has single or double vowels (a common error for beginning students of the language).For those of you unfamiliar with the system, Modified Hepburn has several variations on spelling, so long o's (in hiragana, ou or oo ) are represented as oo, ou, oh, or sometimes ' (That's an o with a bar over it, in case your browser pukes on it). This is not how I learned it, and I feel it does a disservice to students of the language, because both ' and double o's will make hiragana spelling more difficult and confusing (both ou and oo are used in Japanese, and are not interchangable). This dictionary also represents Japanese "ei" as "ee", which is REALLY screwed up, IMO.So those of you who are already comfortable with a particular style of romanization, you may want to consider a different option, or be prepared to change how you think. (This goes for ANY J-E dictionary you may be considering, not just this one.)If you're just starting out, this dictionary will do you well, but be warned that you may mislearn spellings of words which can affect you when you start reading and writing Hiragana.(I was considering giving this 3 stars, because the more I look at this, the more I am unhappy with it--but I'm sticking with 4, because I realize it's a total matter of personal preference, and it is otherwise a good dictionary.)

It’s a standard bilingual dictionary as far as these kinds of dictionaries are concerned – it has two sections for English-Japanese and Romanized Japanese to English with smaller section for related information like grammar rules and verb conjugations. I bought this dictionary primarily on the used cost and positive reviews and I consider myself fortunate that it all worked out.The pocket Kenkyusha Japanese dictionary is the Japanese Language entry from the Oxford series of bilingual dictionaries. While I am not familiar with the Oxford series, the Japanese entry is hefty and comprehensive book for the beginning and intermediate Japanese language student. It boasts 45,000 words and 64,000 translations (but you have to cut those numbers in half to gauge the range between the two sections) that cover the most common words that reader can will use in a normal friendly conversation or read in script if you can read the kana. It’s a great dictionary to have around, more if you if you are looking to move up from the beginner’s dictionary that is included in most self-study course.About the only flaw is the “pocket” designation in the title - with its physical dimensions at 7 ¾ by 5 by 2 inches, it’s larger than the average paperback. If you are willing to exclude that factor, its still decent dictionary and real bargain in you are willing to take a chance on a used copy.

First of all, this is too large to be considered a pocket sized dictionary. I bought this for a young friend who will be living in Japan for an extended period and has not learned the language yet. I was going to send it back, but once I looked through it I decided to keep it. It has both Japanese to English and English to Japanese sections. It also has related phrases included with the definitions which can be extremely helpful to a beginner. A middle section includes grammar and verb conjugations. I have been studying Japanese for over 40 years and wish this dictionary had been available when I first started.

The content of this dictionary is average.In modern second language studies, a good dictionary is vital.This Kenkyusha-Oxford edition 2003 shows no awareness of contemporary Dictionary Design Principles. The design is more than two decades behind.Printed in the UK by a respected printer, the romanised headwords are exaggerated in bold strong black with a clumsy font, and optically adjacent to the Japanese script which is far too small and with very poor definition, making consulting entries tedious for good eye sight and reading illumination.The high-bleached over-reflective paper contrasts too strongly with the heavy ink, and makes reading the page-reverse disturbed because the copious ink darkens the white space even if it has not bled through the budget quality paper.This dictionary costs almost £15Japanese Script, particularly the Hanji element, is probably the most demanding to execute in Dictionary Design and Printing, and this Kenkyusha-Oxford Dictionary just hasn't taken off from 1993.Please remember the photograph is a zoom image and not the actual reading text size. It is meant to illustrate the points of my review.

Great for beginners Japanese level. Has everything I need :)

I bought this series of dictionary. In general, all good. This Japanese-English one, unfortunately, is not as good as the other of the same series for two reasons: (1) although I did not gone through the whole dictionary, only on the first page, there is a serious translation error. On page 1: Kimitsu o abaku: Expose a confidence. (Wrong: Should be: Expose a secret.). This is a "dictionary', not a novel. The editorial quality should be very high. (2) The paper quality is significantly worse than its peers of the same series. In conclusion, this dictionary is good and it outperforms its competitors in my opinion. If the editor edits the dictionary again and prints with a better quality paper, I will give four stars. If the editor increases the examples in the dictionary, I will give five stars.

Pocket is an interesting word, perhaps it was lost in translation.Evidently, when this arrives in your post, it's not a pocket dictionary!As a dictionary though, it's pretty good. Some reviewers complain that the look-up format for the japenese section is in Romanji (i.e. phonetic Japanese). For someone who isn't particularly adept at my Hirogana or Katakana and which order they would come in (in a dictionary), i think it's much more useful to have a phonetic version. That way if you hear or read something, you can transliterate it and look it up much faster than if you were to look for the characters. So, say you wished to look up ' - red. If you know that it's pronounced "aka" you just look that up.As for Kanji characters and situations where you're unsure of the pronunciation, there isn't really anything for that - i'm nowhere near a good enough linguist to wonder how you'd alphabetise Kanji aside from phonetically.I haven't had any problems with the English-Japanese section, it's comprehensive enough to fulfill basic phrasing needs and has plenty of usage examples.There are the usual additional sections dealing with numbers, days and even a historical outline in case you ever needed to look it up. The section on grammar is sparse, but it's a dictionary so that's to be expected. There is enough for a quick reference.All in all, not a bad buy. If you just need a dictionary to put on your shelf then this will do nicely. If you're after a proper pocket book, look for the Oxford mini or a phrasebook.

Very complete and useful.