From: ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Dictionary Recommendations
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:11:16 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego


	Hello. This is Maiko Covington again. I have made a list of
	the 10 dictionaries I use most often and would recommend to
	people who can read/write in Japanese. They have come in
	handy in my life as a student from tyuugakkou to now. I hope
	you enjoy it. Here goes!

(1) "Syoukai Kokugo Jiten" by Obunsya
     This is your standard kokugo jiten, I guess. It is a nice desk
     size and comes in a box, like most dictionaries. Some of the
     things I really like about it are that (1) it has the part of
     speech of every word, (2) it has entries for giseigo and
     gitaigo, and (3) it has an example sentence for EVERY word, if
     not two or three. Very handy. The one thing it does NOT have
     (because it's not a dictionary for students) is the entries of
     kanji by their onyomi with the meaning and reading of said
     kanji. Oh yes, it also provides the "rekisi-teki kana-dukai"
     (kyuu kana-dukai) spelling of words.

(2) "Hyoujyun Kanwa Jiten" by Obunsya
     This is a standard kanwa jiten for students. It comes in a
     green, blue and grey box (1/3 blue, 1/3 green, and 1/3 grey,
     horizontal fat stripes) so you can notice it easily in the
     bookstore. Some of the things I really like about this
     dictionary are: (1) being a standard kanwa jiten, it has lookup
     by all three normal methods: busyu, strokes count, and reading.
     (2) My favorite thing: once you find the page the busyu starts
     on, on that page is a little table of contents for all the
     kanji starting with that busyu so you can find the page
     directly without paging through the section - saves time, (3)
     right next to this is a small list of kanji that lots of people
     think start with that busyu but they really don't, and it tells
     you where you should have looked, (4) both the on and kun
     readings are given clearly right underneath the kanji. I hate
     it when you have to look in the meaning section for the kun
     reading. (5) Kanji that are included in jyouyou kanji <the
     kanji we have to know before graduating junior high school> are
     noted as such, and those that are not in this group are in
     the dictionary too but noted as such, (6) it has the old and
     slang forms of the kanji cross referenced to the main entry,
     (7) it has JIS numbers as part of the entry! Great help in my
     jobs, and finally (8) it lists lots of famous Chinese poems
     that we have to memorize in school and gives the reading in
     koten and in modern Japanese. 
     This is really my favorite kanwa jiten, but I guess I am just
     used to it. I've used it since junior high school. ^_^

(3) "Ruigo Kokugo Jiten" by Kadokawa Syoten
     This is a REALLY neat thing to have. It's basically a
     thesaurus, but... The words are arranged by MEANING. So, as you
     page through the dictionary, each word is close in meaning to
     the word next to it and they sorta slowly change, like that. To
     look up a word you look it up by reading in the index at the
     front, and it tells you what category number to look under. The
     category numbers are written in LARGE type at the top of each
     page; they are in sequential order so basically it's the same
     as looking for a page number except there is not always one
     number per page.  Each word is defined and there are one or two
     example sentences. Given the dictionary's layout, it is perfect
     for comparing two words that are very similar in meaning, like
     when you are writing some long sakubun and you must decide
     which one to use. This dictionary has many many words in it, it
     is also rather fun (for nerds like myself) to just page through
     there and think "ooh, we had this word? I didn't know we have
     this word."  One last really good use of it is for looking up
     all those giseigo and gitaigo - they are in there.
     One final note: This dictionary comes in a hardback version
     (it's yellow) and a somewhat smaller vinyl-bound-in-a-box
     version (it's white). I would recommend the smaller one since
     the content is EXACTLY the same and the smaller one is
     considerbly cheaper. But, that's just my opinion.

(4) "Zen'yaku Kogo Reikai Jiten" by Syougakukan
     This is your standard dictionary of koten (the literary form of
     old Japanese) for high school students. It is very clear on the
     parts of speech and what kind of conjugations the verbs have,
     there is an example (quoted from an ancient text) for each
     word, and the more important words are in bigger print. It also
     has a large section in the back with charts of seasons,
     flowers, parts of kimono, etc that comes up in these stories
     all the time, and lots of grammar charts (for us high school
     students to memorize - =^P).

(5) "Koji Kotowaza Jiten" by Obunsya
     This is a small green dictionary (at least MY edition is green
     - they may have changed it) of proverbs. The proverbs are all
     explained in Japanese with example sentences for each one.
     Proverbs that are derived from English ones, and proverbs that
     just happen to correspond really closely to some English idiom
     have the English idiom given in the entry too. Good way for me
     to learn some really wierd idioms. Really, some of them in
     there I've never even HEARD of or imagined anything so funny. I
     got this for my birthday. It is good for spicing up speeches, I
     guess. That's what it says in the introduction. ^_^

(6) "Yoji Jyukugo Sin Jiten" by Obunsya
     This is a small grey dictionary (again, they may have changed
     the color) of those 4-character compound words that have
     abstract meanings. In school we are expected to memorize lots
     of these and how to write them, so it came in handy. The words
     are arranged by reading, but there is an index in the back that
     has some of the words arranged by category (such as, ones
     involving parts of the body, ones involving numbers, to ka) so
     you can look those up that way. Each entry has the reading, the
     meaning (both the literal meaning and the actual abstract
     meaning), and an example sentence or two to show it in use.
     Very useful. Most of these words came from Chinese, and at the
     end of each entry it tells you what ancient Chinese text the
     word originates in. Some of them even give you the actual story
     from the Chinese (some of these are very funny). I got this one
     for my birthday too, in high school.

(7) "Roots de naruhodo Kanyouku Jiten" by Syuueisya
     This is a VERY handy dictionary of kanyouku (idioms). These are
     all those sayings like "Kokoro ga sawagu" or "Kosi ga nukeru"
     or "te ni ase wo nigiru" etc. These are usually not found in
     proverb dictionaries, but you can't take the meaning of these
     literally either. This dictionary lists them by order of the
     reading and also has lookup by part of the body etc. For the
     entrance examination we have to know lots of these, mostly
     really obscure ones, and so it is handy to have. For each one
     it gives the meaning (the literal meaning, if it isn't really
     obvious, and the actual idiomatic meaning) and example
     sentences. It also tells the origin of the saying (hence the
     title).

(8) "Koujien" by Iwanami Syoten (I think)
     This is just the standard "Koujien". I got this for my high
     school graduation present from my homeroom teacher. Really
     generous guy. This dictionary is really good for looking up
     obscure words, or when you need a really detailed definition. I
     had to write a paper on the coronation ceremonies of the
     emperor, and I was able to look up the meaning and significance
     of the various religious items he was presented with, in there.
     One other neat thing is that it has a list in the back of kanji
     that are NOT on the jyouyou kanji list but that occur with
     enough frequency that they feel literate adults should know
     them. There are LOTS of these but it does make a good list of
     kanji to study from. It also has the standard appendices, with
     timelines, seasons, Chinese time, grammar, how to write a
     letter, etc. I have the 3rd edition, but the 4th is out now.

(9) "Gendai Yougo Kiso Tisiki" by ???
     This is a dictionary/encylopedia of the words originating in
     recent times that appear in the newspaper that you really need
     to know to be up on current events. So for example, you can
     look up "Dokuritu Kokka Kyowakoku" and it will have it in there
     as "Confederation of Independent States" (this dictionary often
     lists an English meaning for words) and will also tell you how
     this new nation was formed, etc. There is an index in the back
     by reading, but otherwise the words are arranged by subject. I
     really wish there was a similar book for English!!!! This comes
     out once a year and it is 2000 yen. It is a large paperback.
     LARGE. It is also fun to look in the "new slang words of youth"
     section and laugh. There are also sections on new fads and
     stuff like that that is funny.

(10)"Buturi Kojiten (dai 3 ban)" by Sanseido
     This is a little book defining all sorts of physics terms, that
     you can carry around with you in your backpack. It defines
     Japanese terms in Japanese but it is very handy for looking up
     formulas you happened to forget. It is 1000 yen.

I hope this was of some use. Please be aware that this is only my
opinion of course. If you have further questions please post them
here or mail me at ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu.  Thank you very much.

	Maiko Covington		ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu