Can anyone recommend a good kanji dictionary to me? I'm just starting with Japanese and I'd like some good tools...I already ordered "501 Japanese Verbs"; I have no idea if it'll be useful, but I love my French version, and it was only 4 dollars.

It would also help if the dictionary explained how it was to be used, because I have no idea how to use a kanji dictionary .

I SO recommend "Kodansha's Essencial Kanji Dictionary". The indexes are really useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodanshas-Essentia...822&sr=8-1

Or if you have the cash, NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary (same people that make KKLD).

CarolinaCG Wrote:I SO recommend "Kodansha's Essencial Kanji Dictionary". The indexes are really useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodanshas-Essentia...822&sr=8-1

Question, though. It says it only has the 1945 joyo kanji, which are made obsolete by by RTK1. Aside from the compounds, would it even be any use if you already know the joyo kanji from Heisig's book, which in and of itself is a dictionary for the joyo kanji?

Question, how does Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary differ from the Kodansha's Kanji Kanji Learner's Dictionary?

From my own experience Japanese-English character dictionaries are only of use while doing RtK (specifically getting a sense of the keyword's actual meaning). I have both KKLD and NJECD, and while they excel at this purpose and I would recommend purchasing them just for that, I have not once found them useful for anything else.

I'm not familiar with the Essential Kanji Dictionary, however.

The physical flashcards for rtk1 that you can download online have all the readings plus all the different definitions for each kanji. It's very useful. Just open it up, ctrl F, type in the original keyword, and it'll show you all the rest.

The New Nelson Dictionary is the best one to get in my view.

There is a review of the major dictionaries that's quite useful.

Note the link in that review to a feature comparison chart.