Since I have looked everywhere one can possibly look on the net, including this forum, for a looong time - years - I have arrived at the conclusion that there are no REALLY comprehensive dictionaries in print, unless you 1) manage to find a copy of the Green Goddess and her possible sisters and 2) have that kind of money (which I don't).
To give you an idea of what I am looking for here is what I already own:
1) My first dictionary ever was the J/E E/J dicitionary from Random House. It's actually rather comprehensive and offer the best "hits" for many words in its' rather terse format. But it *IS* too terse without any example sentences and other requirements.
2) The next one was "The Modern English-Nihongo Dictionary" from Kodansha. This is really a beauty and one of the best examples I know of why Kodansha is the leading publisher of material for Japanese students: they are sometimes too good to be true. Really. This is more like a small encyclopedia of the Japanese language with nice illustrations, culture issues and you name it. If you like great books - just that - I strongly recommend you to get a copy of this, if it's still in print!!! But: Only 6000 entries. No matter how well they are presented - and they are - with tons of example sentences etc. - this is way too little for my needs now and in the future.
3) Kodansha's "Furigana Japanese-English dictionary", another excellent SMALL dictionary. But really VERY LIMITED. More for browsing and learning nice phrases than looking up words *I* want to find.
4) The best of the pack is Kodansha's "Communicative English-Japanese Dictionary". I bought this shortly after it was published (2006) so it's as up-to-date as you can expect. It *is* rather comprehensive with 22000 entries, but not enough for me. I still BROWSE this just for fun, but I want a dictionary to offer every or most English words I know. And preferably words I even don't know :-) As well as most difficult Japanese words NOT found in EDICT etc.
The reason why I ask now is that I have found more REALLY comprehensive Mandarin/English dictionaries on the net, than I have time/ability to investigate. THE PROBLEM with these are that many of them are ENTIRELY produced for the Chinese students of English and then of limited use for use going in the opposite direction. I mean: It's pretty useless to be expected to KNOW Mandarin when buying a dictionary!! This is even the case with mainstream dictionaries like Oxford's Dictionary including the very useful electronic dictionary. I have borrowed it from my library, installed the software and returned the printed dictionary at once since it's useless for me.
So, yes. There might be tons of comprehensive J/E E/J dictionaries published for the JAPANESE MARKET. But I want one published for Students of Japanese with Furigana as the minimum requirement, but kana as the optimal solution.
Any?
To give you an idea of what I am looking for here is what I already own:
1) My first dictionary ever was the J/E E/J dicitionary from Random House. It's actually rather comprehensive and offer the best "hits" for many words in its' rather terse format. But it *IS* too terse without any example sentences and other requirements.
2) The next one was "The Modern English-Nihongo Dictionary" from Kodansha. This is really a beauty and one of the best examples I know of why Kodansha is the leading publisher of material for Japanese students: they are sometimes too good to be true. Really. This is more like a small encyclopedia of the Japanese language with nice illustrations, culture issues and you name it. If you like great books - just that - I strongly recommend you to get a copy of this, if it's still in print!!! But: Only 6000 entries. No matter how well they are presented - and they are - with tons of example sentences etc. - this is way too little for my needs now and in the future.
3) Kodansha's "Furigana Japanese-English dictionary", another excellent SMALL dictionary. But really VERY LIMITED. More for browsing and learning nice phrases than looking up words *I* want to find.
4) The best of the pack is Kodansha's "Communicative English-Japanese Dictionary". I bought this shortly after it was published (2006) so it's as up-to-date as you can expect. It *is* rather comprehensive with 22000 entries, but not enough for me. I still BROWSE this just for fun, but I want a dictionary to offer every or most English words I know. And preferably words I even don't know :-) As well as most difficult Japanese words NOT found in EDICT etc.
The reason why I ask now is that I have found more REALLY comprehensive Mandarin/English dictionaries on the net, than I have time/ability to investigate. THE PROBLEM with these are that many of them are ENTIRELY produced for the Chinese students of English and then of limited use for use going in the opposite direction. I mean: It's pretty useless to be expected to KNOW Mandarin when buying a dictionary!! This is even the case with mainstream dictionaries like Oxford's Dictionary including the very useful electronic dictionary. I have borrowed it from my library, installed the software and returned the printed dictionary at once since it's useless for me.
So, yes. There might be tons of comprehensive J/E E/J dictionaries published for the JAPANESE MARKET. But I want one published for Students of Japanese with Furigana as the minimum requirement, but kana as the optimal solution.
Any?
Edited: 2009-01-02, 1:47 am
