Today, in this course, we are going to take a look at different resources that will be very useful, and even essential in your learning. I am of course talking about dictionaries.
In this second season, you have now understood it, you will start to create your first sentences. And to create sentences, you need vocabulary. And the vocabulary courses I am going to give you, while there are many, will not be enough. If, for example, you feel like telling your life story in Japanese or giving a long talk about your favorite pet (me, I love cats !), you will need to master some vocabulary. And very often, this vocabulary will have to be found in a dictionary.
And dictionaries, there are many. Paper dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, online dictionaries and even smartphone apps. Although, for the latter category, I will not introduce you to any because it is not what I like the most. I prefer my Kanji To Kana or the online dictionary.
Personally, I have never used smartphone apps, at most an online dictionary or even a paper dictionary and nothing else, but I know everyone is different so I will try hard in this course to present various resources hoping you will find what you are looking for.
Before you begin, also be aware that when you want to create a sentence in Japanese, you must pay close attention to homonyms. You will look for a word in your dictionary starting from English, but it may be that this word is a homonym. So, if you make the mistake of confusing the word you are looking for with its homonym, you will look ridiculous in front of your Japanese interlocutor.
Also note that on the site’s FAQ page, accessible from the menu bar at the top, I already give a list of very useful resources for learning Japanese and that I just have to copy and paste below... Frankly, it will do !
The very first (and only) book that I recommend to you is of course the famous Kanji To Kana, essential, indestructible and timeless. You will not be able to learn Japanese properly without this book, it is the absolute reference. It costs money, of course, but it doesn’t cost a lot and it is definitely worth it. You can order it from a site like Amazon or try to find it at a bookstore in your area.
Not only does the Kanji To Kana contain the entire list of the most common kanji in the Japanese language and more, it also contains the many recurring keys in the composition of kanji.
However, remember that the Kanji To Kana is a dictionary of kanji. It is therefore mainly used to search for kanji, not words although there are examples of words according to the kanji you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for the « dog » kanji, you’ll find several examples of words written with the kanji of « dog » in it.
The Kanji To Kana does not work like a traditional dictionary but it is a reference. You absolutely need one.
On this side, English speakers are particularly spoiled. All you have to do is type "English-Japanese dictionary" in the Google search bar and you will immediately come across several online dictionaries.
However, I will present here only one online dictionary, the one which seems to me the best and of course free of charge: Jisho.org.
Jisho.org is a very interesting dictionary. You can search for a word by typing the word you are looking for in the search bar; either in English or in Romaji. You can also search for a word or kanji based on the stem of the kanji or draw the kanji you are looking for.
I highly recommend Jisho.org. You also have audio files for each word you are looking for. This dictionary is really very complete.
Since we are talking about completely free and accessible resources online, know that I do not recommend Google Translate. I already know that many of you will want to jump on it but it is not a reliable resource. The big problem with Google Translate is the considerable margin of error. Whether you want to translate from English to Japanese or vice versa, chances are they will get you a totally wrong translation.
Despite these shortcomings, Google Translate has the advantage of being able to be used to search for simple words, on a case-by-case basis, even giving you a list of synonymous words so that you are sure of the meaning of the term according to what you mean.
Personally, I have never used an electronic dictionary and for a very simple reason, they are generally extremely expensive. Prices range on average from 60 euros for the cheapest to 300 euros for the most expensive. And of course, the price is not necessarily representative of the quality. Just because an electronic dictionary costs 300 euros doesn’t mean it will be better, more complete than an electronic dictionary that costs 60 euros. And quite frankly, for all the other resources that are available for free and more easily accessible, electronic dictionaries are not worth it.
This is only my personal opinion, after that if you really want to put that much money into it, it’s your choice.
I have never used Google Image so much to find vocabulary words but know that sometimes you will not necessarily find the words you are looking for in the dictionary or through Google Translate.
Imagine you find a Japanese word that you at least have the pronunciation of. You type the word in the dictionary, and you find nothing, you type the word in Google Translate, but you’re not quite sure of the translation. In this case, you can type the word on Google Image (with the Japanese virtual keyboard) and, hopefully, Google Image will give you images corresponding to the word in question, which gives you a little idea.
It is quite possible to have words in Japanese that have no equivalent in English, which may explain why you could not find them in the dictionary.
Finally, you sometimes have proper, rather fanciful names, which are sometimes found in heroic-fantasy video games and other RPGs, where you have characters with an unusual name, completely fictitious. These are also the kinds of words that you probably won’t find in the dictionary and that Google Translate will have a hard time translating. Again, Google Image can help you understand.
Once, I came across a name of Pokémon (without knowing it) and I struggled for a long time before having the idea to search on Google Image !
NOTE : when searching for a word using the Google search engine, try typing your search in hiragana or katakana rather than kanji. Knowing that the kanji are, at the basis of sinograms, you may well end up with Chinese results and not Japanese, so use hiragana or katakana to make the search engine understand that you are looking for a Japanese word.
The Wiktionary works on the principle of participatory sites. Everyone is free to add a Japanese word with its translation and explanations.
But the Wiktionary can still be very useful to you. On a personal note, I use it to check the pure and Sino-Japanese pronunciations of kanji when I’m in doubt. I rarely use it to search for the meaning of a word because Jisho.org always seemed more effective for it. Anyway, the Wiktionary is not to be neglected so think about.
Finally, the paper dictionaries. I don’t have any to introduce you, but you can easily find them in specialized bookstores or order them from websites like Amazon, Fnac or Decitre.
Paper dictionaries can be very useful when searching for a word because they provide you with lots of little details like synonyms, word’s pronunciation in rōmaji and most even provide you with example sentences. They also allow you to be very careful not to confuse homonyms, which can save you some very embarrassing situations when you find yourself talking to a Japanese.
Good ! That’s all I have to say about dictionaries and other resources that you can find on the Internet and elsewhere, for free or not. If you can and if you haven’t already, get the Kanji To Kana, latest edition, it’s a must, I remind you.
And now we are all set to step into the bath. From the next lesson, we will start to create our first sentences in Japanese.
Introduction