February Eve
ZD District Attorney
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Location
- USA
As I've mentioned before, I lived in Japan a couple years, but have been away longer than I lived there and have forgotten a lot of what I've learned due to lack of use. I'd like to return for a vacation within the next couple years, however, and plan to start studying it again. Since I've seen other people say they'd like to learn the language, I'd like to post some of the helpful learning aids I come across and give a review of them, and if you're currently studying it yourself, I would be very happy if you would do the same. I am always looking for useful Japanese resources.
Again, I am by no means an expert in the language, but these are some of the tools I've come across as a student.
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Jim Breen's Online Dictionary
This is an invaluable website once you learn how to use it.
Word search/home
This is what you use if you already know the English and want to find a Japanese word. You need to know which setting to use, though. For example, typing in an "orange" may give you a bunch of hits, but it's not sorted - you'll get the color orange and the fruit, but also different kidnds of fruit, etc. Changing the options to "restrict to common words" helps that out, but there will still be more hits than you expect. But selecting "restrict to common words" and "require exact-word matches" are best for beginners only brings up the translation for the color and the fruit - most of the time, what you want.
One thing I like about this dictionary is often an "Ex" will come up next to the word. That means there are examples of that word used in a sentence. Keep in mind that some of these are user-submitted, so treat the information with the same grain of salt as you would something found on a wiki, but many times they are still quite useful.
As you become more advanced at Japanese, the first "G" can also be great. It will do a google search of that Japanese word. (The second "G" does an image search.)
And of course, there is an option to select looking up the romanized version of the word. If you don't require an exact word match, you can type in part of the word as well, and it will bring up everything that begins with that pronunciation.
Translate words
This is what you use if you have a selection of Japanese text and can cut and paste it into the form to translate it. If you have Japanese-character input, you can also type in the text yourself.
Kanji lookup
There are several ways to look kanji up here, but one I use fairly often is "kanji or reading." If you know the pronuncation of a certain kanji, you can use this. You can also choose to cut-and-paste a kanji there, and one advantage to using this instead of "translate words" is that you can then choose to look up any compound word that contains that kanji.
Multi-Radical Kanji
Once you have studied kanji for awhile, this is a lovely tool. Kanji can be broken down into different parts called "radicals", and if you see a kanji but don't know how to read it, you can go here and select the radicals you see, and the search will narrow down kanji based on those selections.
_______________________
Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
For those who want a book they can hold in their hand, this is an excellent resource. It contains all of the "Jouyou Kanji" (all kanji studied by students through high school) and then some. It will be easiest to use once you get used to counting the strokes needed to write a kanji, but one of its key features is the ability to look a kanji based on its basic shape. For example, some kanji seem to have a left and right part - for example, '[SIZE=+1]体[/SIZE]' ("karada") a kanji that means 'body'. You don't have to know the reading or which part is considered the radical. If you know how to count the brush strokes, you can tell that the left side has 2 and the right side has 5. You can then limit your search based on those characteristics. (There is a guide to stroke counting in the dictionary, though in my opinion, it is one of those things that you start to get instinctively the more you practice.)
Another thing that's nice about the dictionary is that it has a long list of common compounds the kanji is contained in. Some of the other books I have are more concerned with how the kanji was derived and will only give a few examples of its use. The amount listed here, however, is extremely practical. While I wouldn't rely on it to have word - it is predominately a kanji dictionary, not one for words - there have been many times I haven't known how to read a word and when I looked up one of the kanji, that word was listed, eliminating the need to look it up elsewhere.
There are also indexes with traditional ways to look up kanji, such as by reading or radical. And there is a list of the top 1000 kanji that are used the most, which can be very useful.
_______________________
I have more recommendations that I can post later. Hope this helps those of you who would like to begin studying the language.
Again, I am by no means an expert in the language, but these are some of the tools I've come across as a student.
_______________________
Jim Breen's Online Dictionary
This is an invaluable website once you learn how to use it.
Word search/home
This is what you use if you already know the English and want to find a Japanese word. You need to know which setting to use, though. For example, typing in an "orange" may give you a bunch of hits, but it's not sorted - you'll get the color orange and the fruit, but also different kidnds of fruit, etc. Changing the options to "restrict to common words" helps that out, but there will still be more hits than you expect. But selecting "restrict to common words" and "require exact-word matches" are best for beginners only brings up the translation for the color and the fruit - most of the time, what you want.
One thing I like about this dictionary is often an "Ex" will come up next to the word. That means there are examples of that word used in a sentence. Keep in mind that some of these are user-submitted, so treat the information with the same grain of salt as you would something found on a wiki, but many times they are still quite useful.
As you become more advanced at Japanese, the first "G" can also be great. It will do a google search of that Japanese word. (The second "G" does an image search.)
And of course, there is an option to select looking up the romanized version of the word. If you don't require an exact word match, you can type in part of the word as well, and it will bring up everything that begins with that pronunciation.
Translate words
This is what you use if you have a selection of Japanese text and can cut and paste it into the form to translate it. If you have Japanese-character input, you can also type in the text yourself.
Kanji lookup
There are several ways to look kanji up here, but one I use fairly often is "kanji or reading." If you know the pronuncation of a certain kanji, you can use this. You can also choose to cut-and-paste a kanji there, and one advantage to using this instead of "translate words" is that you can then choose to look up any compound word that contains that kanji.
Multi-Radical Kanji
Once you have studied kanji for awhile, this is a lovely tool. Kanji can be broken down into different parts called "radicals", and if you see a kanji but don't know how to read it, you can go here and select the radicals you see, and the search will narrow down kanji based on those selections.
_______________________
Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
For those who want a book they can hold in their hand, this is an excellent resource. It contains all of the "Jouyou Kanji" (all kanji studied by students through high school) and then some. It will be easiest to use once you get used to counting the strokes needed to write a kanji, but one of its key features is the ability to look a kanji based on its basic shape. For example, some kanji seem to have a left and right part - for example, '[SIZE=+1]体[/SIZE]' ("karada") a kanji that means 'body'. You don't have to know the reading or which part is considered the radical. If you know how to count the brush strokes, you can tell that the left side has 2 and the right side has 5. You can then limit your search based on those characteristics. (There is a guide to stroke counting in the dictionary, though in my opinion, it is one of those things that you start to get instinctively the more you practice.)
Another thing that's nice about the dictionary is that it has a long list of common compounds the kanji is contained in. Some of the other books I have are more concerned with how the kanji was derived and will only give a few examples of its use. The amount listed here, however, is extremely practical. While I wouldn't rely on it to have word - it is predominately a kanji dictionary, not one for words - there have been many times I haven't known how to read a word and when I looked up one of the kanji, that word was listed, eliminating the need to look it up elsewhere.
There are also indexes with traditional ways to look up kanji, such as by reading or radical. And there is a list of the top 1000 kanji that are used the most, which can be very useful.
_______________________
I have more recommendations that I can post later. Hope this helps those of you who would like to begin studying the language.