Yes. And while you're at it, let me choose the next car you get, too.

I've being doing monodic, but sometimes the definitions are just beyond my comprehension. I especially hate when the kanji I look up is a part of the definition. I think you'll be alright, though.

Yes, use the monodic. Actually looking up really, really simple words you already know the definition to helps loads:

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/bl … ctionaries

In fact, I start using a monodic a few weeks ago like that.  I started out that last.  In the beginning I could barely use it at all.  Now, I'm very accustomed to it.  I still have trouble now and then, but the progress I've made is incredible. 

And once you start to get accustomed to the monodic, it's amazing how irritating the definitions suddenly are in bilingual dictionaries.

GT-R, huh? If you haven't seen Initial D or Wangan Midnight, do.

Straight mono-lingual? Probably not. Looking up the definition of glass in a good English dictionary should show why that's not a good idea. I think someone showed there's five very lengthy definitions.

A good monolingual and J-E dictionary? Great idea. Use the monolingual for the words that have simple definitions you can follow. The J-E for words that have difficult definitions in Japanese.

The reason I'm giving myself for not going straight J-J dictionary is the reason I advocate Heisig: I have a powerful tool called English that helps get concepts across very, very fast. Why ignore the benefit.

Another reason I'm using a good J-E more are for the simple phrases you will not find in J-J that you won't figure out yourself without three of four different cases of context. Since I'm using EBwin, I do a "Find all" feature which has helped immensely for these such as (Pardon my romaji): 'wagamichi wo iku', 'dochirasama desuka', 'dounasaimasu', 'dounafuni' which pop up a few example sentences even though there were no main entries for them.

i can understand almost every definition in my dictionary that i posted a link to... the definitions are made for elementary students and it`s quite easy to understand... they are dumbed down definitions... i think the website has some examples.. check it out: http://www.benesse.co.jp/jiten/jiten/syou4.html

also, my dictionary is entirely in furigana

Last edited by Hashiriya (2009 August 31, 11:58 pm)

Yeah I actually think that just today I realized I could use a monolingual dictionary effectively.  Some concepts are just better communicated more clearly in Japanese.  I'm happy I waited though.  I'm at almost exactly 1000 native sentences - though I have been very slow about adding those since February when I finished RTK.

I avoided the headache of looking up words of definitions and looking up more words in those definitions... that was too slow and discouraging.  I usually allow myself to go one level deeper - if I don't understand one word in a J-J definition I can look it up, but I don't let myself look up words in that definition.  What I found is that without even knowing it I naturally came to be able to understand monolingual defs with minimal headache.

I have the dic that Hashiriya posted about, and even though it was very easy to understand even at the beginning, it was just too slow looking up words in a paper dictionary so I cut it out.

My advice is to try the J-J.  If it still seems too hard, keep working and try back next time until you feel like 'hey, I can see how well this would work now.'

while i have only been doing this for about a day so far, i feel that going monolingual with this dictionary is the right thing to do for me at this point... my japanese wife was sitting beside me last night reading the dictionary to me while i was putting the words in Anki.. i was amazed at how much i already knew and she was right there to answer any questions i might have... another thing i could do really well was listen to japanese in the background also.. that is compared to smart.fm, where i would have trouble following whats going on in the background because of concentrating on the japanese sentences and the english sentences... i still think smart.fm was necessary though to bring me to the level where i am now and i agree that English did a good job of helping me get here but now i feel like i know the basics enough to use the monolingual dictionary only... let me give you an example of my card:

front:合い言葉
back:（あいことば）
1　仲間であることを確かめる為の、前もって決めておく合図の言葉。
例：「山」と言ったら「川」と答えるのを合い言葉にする。
２　グループの目標として決めた短い言葉。
例：このチームの合い言葉は、「ファイト」だ。

it`s so easy to understand isn`t it?

the 1st definition is password, while i understand the 2nd definition perfectly, i just don`t know how to say it in English...

but the #1 thing i think that is good from studying from a monolingual dictionary is that even if you know the word in japanese, can you explain it in japanese also? if you can, even if you forget the word in conversation, you could explain enough about it for someone to understand what you want to say... i think a monolingual dictionary is the secret why Khatzumoto became "fluent" as quick as he did... even if he might forget a word, he could explain himself out of a hole real fast...