KanjiHanzi
Banned
From: Scandinavia
Registered: 2008-12-16
Posts: 127
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?
Last edited by KanjiHanzi (2009 January 02, 12:47 am)
KanjiHanzi
Banned
From: Scandinavia
Registered: 2008-12-16
Posts: 127
KristinHolly wrote:
I don't think you're going to find much at that level with kana, but the New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary may be useful. I believe it has about 32,000 character entries and a much larger number of compounds.
Yes, I guess I'll buy that some time, but I am not sure if it is of much use a dictionary looking up words, really.
KristinHolly wrote:
I generally use a portable electronic 広辞苑 (J/J) dictionary with a nice jump function that lets me go to a kanji dictionary or small J/E dictionary as necessary. When the word I want isn't in the J/E section, I just keep going through the explanation or cross-references until I find something that I know or can find in the J/E part
.
Yes, this is course a great alternative, but here too it's a money matter. I find a good electronic dictionary loaded with The Green Lady and other dictionaries is beyond what I can pay right now. It's of course slightly more economically viable since I now study Mandarin for most of the time and can have those dictionaries loaded too almost for nothing as a bonus.
KristinHolly wrote:
The "Green Goddess" you mentioned (親和英大辞典) is on Amazon.co.jp if that's what you really want.
.
Yes, I want. I want. I want! :-) I am unfortunately very old-fashioned and sort of romantic when it comes to books. Nothing beats a book on the desk. At least it looks like you know what you are doing exposing a HUGE dictionary there.
Unfortunately you are too optimistic re, the availability of any Kenkyusha dictionaries on Japanese Amazon. I've looked there frequently and there are NEVER any recent and new editions available. The best - as in more up-to-date - edition available is a single used copy of the Blue Goddess (Kenkyushas New English-Japanese Dictionary) for a "mere" US$220+ and on top of that a huge cost for shipping to Europe. Nope.
The Blue and Green ladies are out of reach for me now. What I REALLY can't understand it why they are not SOLD anywhere on the net since they are surely printed in their new editions. Somewhere. There is a book store somewhere in US which used to sell them, but once again. The PRICE!!!!!!
Thanks for your reply!
(An alternative could be to subscribe to Kenkyusha online, but I have never got far enough to check what it cost on a monthly/yearly basis).
