The Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary is a brand new guide to learning Japanese. Designed specifically for English-speaking adult learners who are either learning from scratch or refreshing lost language skills, it offers an easy to use dictionary, extra help with vocabulary, and essential information on living and interacting in the Japanese-speaking world. The dictionary is exceptionally easy to use, because it moves away from the traditional dictionary layout. All main translations are preceded by an equals sign so that they are instantly identifiable, and all parts of the entry are spelt out in full, avoiding confusing jargon and abbreviations. Grammar and usage notes throughout the text warn of possible translation pitfalls, and thousands of example phrases show how the language is used in context. The 30-page Learning and Lifestyle kit gives key information on both the Japanese language, with a list of the words you really need to know, grammar help, and verbtables, and on life in the Japanese-speaking world: background information on lifestyle and culture, tips on etiquette and interaction in the language, and a phrasefinder for use when travelling. The Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary is your essential companion to learning Japanese.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars
19 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent beginner's dictionary
Jun 19 2007
By Ray McDonald
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I have looked for an easy-to-use bi-directional Japanese-English dictionary for a long time and this is one of the best I have found. The dictionary is easy to use and packed full of informative commentary to help a beginner Japanese student who has a functioning knowledge of hiragana. Some people might criticize the book for being lacking in vocabulary, but as far as beginners go, I believe it to be a very useful and easy-to-use book.
Some pros:
1. Dictionary is bi-direction (has a J-E and E-J)
2. The Japanese stands out from the English with a very easy to see blue hiragana text, with the kanji characters next to them as well.
3. Easy to understand break-down of different types of Japanese verbs.
4. Dictionary entries have useful commentary for sayings, idiomatic expressions, etc. as they come up.
5. An excellent "Learning and Lifestyle" kit in the back of the dictionary gives a whole array of tools to help beginners (and anyone who is learning Japanese) a wide array of need-to-know words, cultural hints, kana charts, phrases, etc.
6. Dictionary is small and compact, but extensive. It fits nicely inside a backpack with the rest of your college books!
Some pros:
1. Dictionary is bi-direction (has a J-E and E-J)
2. The Japanese stands out from the English with a very easy to see blue hiragana text, with the kanji characters next to them as well.
3. Easy to understand break-down of different types of Japanese verbs.
4. Dictionary entries have useful commentary for sayings, idiomatic expressions, etc. as they come up.
5. An excellent "Learning and Lifestyle" kit in the back of the dictionary gives a whole array of tools to help beginners (and anyone who is learning Japanese) a wide array of need-to-know words, cultural hints, kana charts, phrases, etc.
6. Dictionary is small and compact, but extensive. It fits nicely inside a backpack with the rest of your college books!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Wire" and "Hip" vs. "Intensive Care Unit" and "Zebra Crossing"
Jun 9 2012
By Paul Eres
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Most of the rest of the reviews cover the pros and cons of this book. But they leave one important bit of information that I wanted (before I bought the book) and could not find: how many words (entries) it has. The book itself doesn't say this, but I estimated (counting entries per page on three pages, taking the average, and multiplying by pages. The answer seems to be about 4500-5000 entries. So there: there's the info for those looking for it (like I was).
That's pretty small for a dictionary, but fair for a beginner's dictionary. The word choice seems a bit odd though. For instance, there is no entry for "hip", but there's an entry for "intensive care unit". There's no entry for "wire" but there's an entry for "zebra crossing". Really? How many Zebra Crossings are there in Japan? This makes me wonder how these words were chosen. It clearly wasn't a word frequency list or something like "basic english". I kind of expect beginners are more likely to want to know words like wire and hip than words like intensive care unit and zebra crossing.
Nonetheless I give this dictionary a recommendation, because it's the only dictionary I know of that lets you look up alternative conjugations of a word and find something. For example, if you are a beginner and hear "itte", which is a form of iku (to go), and try to look it up in some other dictionary, that word likely won't appear as "itte" in any Japanese-English dictionary I know of besides this one. Same thing with "yonde" and so on; it's very useful for a beginner to be able to look up the "non-dictionary" forms of words and be directed towards the dictionary form.
That's pretty small for a dictionary, but fair for a beginner's dictionary. The word choice seems a bit odd though. For instance, there is no entry for "hip", but there's an entry for "intensive care unit". There's no entry for "wire" but there's an entry for "zebra crossing". Really? How many Zebra Crossings are there in Japan? This makes me wonder how these words were chosen. It clearly wasn't a word frequency list or something like "basic english". I kind of expect beginners are more likely to want to know words like wire and hip than words like intensive care unit and zebra crossing.
Nonetheless I give this dictionary a recommendation, because it's the only dictionary I know of that lets you look up alternative conjugations of a word and find something. For example, if you are a beginner and hear "itte", which is a form of iku (to go), and try to look it up in some other dictionary, that word likely won't appear as "itte" in any Japanese-English dictionary I know of besides this one. Same thing with "yonde" and so on; it's very useful for a beginner to be able to look up the "non-dictionary" forms of words and be directed towards the dictionary form.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best choice for beginners
Feb 14 2011
By D. Miser
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
As a Japanese language beginner living in Japan, I think this bi-directional dictionary is the best one out there.
In addition to the merits discussed in other reviews, I would add that the dictionary gives Japanese-to-English entries for verbs in the neutral polite ("masu") and "te" forms, which is how language beginners will likely encounter new verbs. (The entry redirects you to the corresponding dictionary form.) I found this to be extremely useful, and other dictionaries I tried lacked this; hence those dictionaries were rather useless in this context.
In addition to the merits discussed in other reviews, I would add that the dictionary gives Japanese-to-English entries for verbs in the neutral polite ("masu") and "te" forms, which is how language beginners will likely encounter new verbs. (The entry redirects you to the corresponding dictionary form.) I found this to be extremely useful, and other dictionaries I tried lacked this; hence those dictionaries were rather useless in this context.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 19 reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > English (British)
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference > Foreign Language Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Japanese
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference > Instruction > Dictionaries; Polyglot
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference > Instruction > Japanese
- Books > Education & Reference > Spanish-Language Reference
- Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Linguistics
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Foreign Languages > Japanese
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Reference > Dictionaries
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Applied
- Books > Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 > Education
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
