Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary

The level of extra information in the book is outstanding, it has both Hiragana and Katakana versions of Japanese symbols to express words from English. I've just started learning the calligraphy of Japanese symbols and thought yeah I would like to know what I'm writing about and understand a little bit of the language. Hopefully I progress in the right direction and this book will aid my progression.

Fantastic, informative, has everything you need. I appreciate that there is no romaji (where the words are spelt with English lettering) as it can become confusing. Is perfect for a language learner.

This dictionary is extremely good for beginners that know hiragana. They have phrases in this dictionary for certain situations which is always good to know, I would definitely recommend this book for someone that wants to learn words but I recommend you learn Hiragana first and Katakana since some words in this dictionary are foreign the Japanese use Katakana but the majority of words aren’t in Katakana, they are in Hiragana. You should also learn Kanji since Japanese words are usually written in Kanji mixed with Hiragana but if you don’t know Kanji then that’s ok for this dictionary because they put the Hiragana so you know how to pronounce the word

I bought this about a week after I began learning Japanese and it has been immensely valuable. I've been using it alongside my primary teaching application so that I can form my own sentences which relate to my everyday life after learning the proper sentence structure. I like that it uses hiragana as it forces you to learn / remember and removes the temptation to "cheat". I'd only recommend this as a secondary source to accompany your primary text book(s) or taught classes as it's clearly not designed to actually teach you the language but rather help with vocabulary (you must at-least know hiragana). That said it does give a few grammar tips but as a beginner I found these rather confusing compared to my other beginner resources. My other two issues are (a) although it's a "beginner" book I feel they could have included more words as I still find myself going online quite often to look words up and (b) included towards the back are a helpful few pages of "Japanese words you must know" it would actually have been nice for English translations in this section or page reference numbers to look up said words being a "beginner's" book. All in all it was money well spent as I pick words out on a daily basis.

I'm surprised with how good it is. This is a very good book, it's quite thick and A5 size. As soon as I began reading it I started leaning new words and phrases. I do recommend you learn at least a little bit of hiragana while you're waiting for it to arrives it will help you jump straight into learning, however, the dictionary does have some exercises and charts in the back which is very helpful. This is perfect for anyone learning or studying the Japanese language as it can really help you to build up your vocabulary as well as phrases. The first section is in Japanese with the English counterparts at the side, the back is full of English words with their Japanese counterparts. A lot of things have sentences to explain what they're saying the "use it in a sentence" thing which is very good. This isn't going to make you fluent in Japanese on its own and you do need to learn pronunciation as well which the book doesn't teach you but it definitely will help you. It's a paperback so I don't know why people are complaining that it's made from paper?

Very good quality JP to ENG dictionary.

A very good, easy to understand addition to any beginner learner of Japanese. A knowledge of hiragana and katakana is essential, as there is no rōmaji. It is in 2 sections; Japanese for the first half, English the second half. It has great examples of words in sentences used in context. I guess you can say this dictionary on its own can also be used a learning tool. I am very happy with this version!

This is a fantastic dictionary for several reasons listed below: There is no romaji - great for practicing your Japanese reading skills if you use this dictionary a lot, Words which are usually written in kanji, e.g. ( ima )( 今 ) are shown in hiragana AND kanji ( 今 )|( いま ), Contains extra information on the Japanese language, for example the culture and etiquette, at the centre and end of the book, Finally the page and cover quality is excellent, and there is colour (mostly blue) on the pages as opposed to black & white.

Sto imparando il giapponese da zero e quindi faccio un pò fatica a capire in che ordine sono le parole. Ma è utile e aiuta a fissare meglio la scrittura di hiragana e katakana.

Perfectly usefull

As others have said, the entries are all in Kana and Kanji - absolutely essential for learning Nihon-go. It's smaller than I expected, which means it's portable in a small knapsack. Pagination is exceptional - very happy customer here!

Todo lo hay en el diccionario me encanta, quien este aprendiendo japones le sera muy útil, yo lo utilizo mucho para aprender y consultar.

I have used this dictionary for many years, and re-ordered it many times over as I give my copies away to others who are studying. I used in extensively in Japan. It includes sections of Japanese cultural notes, and sections on how-to-use guides. Its examples are quite illustrative, showing how something could be used. It does assume you are learning Japanese from elsewhere, and will either know sentence structures, or be able to look them up. My personal favorite feature is that it does not use romanized characters (English letters) in it Japanese sections. This is a must for a serious language student, because romanized letters are well-documented to impede Japanese language acquisition: there are multiple ways to transliterate Japanese words. Most importantly, if you're in Japan, and must depend on English letters, then you are functionally illiterate. This dictionary is not exhaustive, but no portable dictionary could possibly have every word you might want in it. That said, it's small enough to be portable--barely--namely in cargo pockets or in a backpack. Yet it is large enough to be easy to read, and have a solid selection of words. If you are serious about learning Japanese, it might be worth investing in a second more-comprehensive dictionary, I have certainly purchased several. However, this is the dictionary you want with you when you are walking around town, or driving to a friend's place. It followed me everywhere. This is bar-none, my favorite English/Japanese dictionary. (I lived 2 years in Japan, and continue to study the language with an eye to return there permanently.)