The CJKI Chinese Learner's Dictionary
CJKI 汉英学习词典
Jack Halpern (春遍雀來)Index to this Document
Overview

Key features

Why a new Chinese dictionary?

How is this dictionary different?

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Is it easy for beginners to use?

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What are the drawbacks of existing dictionaries?

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System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns

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How SKIP works

Page sample for “liu”

Introducing Jack Halpern

0. Overview
The primary goal of this dictionary is to give the learner a thorough understanding of
how Chinese characters (hanzi) are used in contemporary Chinese by providing
instant access to a wealth of useful information on the meanings, readings, andcompounds for the most frequently used characters. Thanks to the use of arevolutionary lookup method, the user can locate characters as quickly as inalphabetical dictionaries.

11. Key features
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Over 2,782 entry characters and more than 19,811 compound words
Multiple lookup methods, including the revolutionary SKIP system
Core meanings instantly convey each character’s fundamental
concept
Precise meanings show how characters contribute to the meaningsof compoundsFrequency statistics based on a corpus of one billion words
Detailed stroke-order diagrams
Various character codes, including Unicode
Fully supports HSK – all words included, classified by level
Useful Appendixes to aid the reader
Attractive layout for relaxed browsing
Accurate part-of-speech codes

2. Why a new Chinese dictionary?
Though the number of Chinese learners in the world exceeds 30,000,000,
existing dictionaries have various drawbacks (discussed below) that makethem unsuitable for learners. The CJKI Chinese Learner's Dictionary
answers the urgent need for an easy-to-use Chinese character dictionary,compact enough to be easily carried around, yet detailed enough to satisfy
the practical needs of the serious learner.
Here, for the first time, is a totally new work that enables learners to gain an
in-depth understanding of how Chinese characters are used incontemporary Chinese. The new dictionary is based on The Kodansha Kanji
Learner’s Dictionary (KALD), which has become a standard reference work
for learning Japanese kanji and has enjoyed the praise of world-renowned
scholars and countless learners worldwide. This dictionary inherits theoutstanding features that has made KALD so popular, and fully responds tothe Chinese learner’s specific needs, such as full coverage of words andcharacters required for the HSK proficiency tests.

3. How is this dictionary different?
This dictionary was designed specifically to overcome the various
deficiencies found in existing Chinese learner’s dictionaries by providing
many distinct features that put it in a class of its own.
2Core Meaning. The core meaning is a unique and valuable feature, a concise
keyword that defines the most dominant meaning of each character, which
is followed by in-depth meanings that clearly show how a few thousandbasic building blocks are combined to form countless compound words.
For example, BREAK conveys the essential meaning of 破 as an easy-toremember thought package, and shows how the various senses are variantsof the same concept, so the reader can grasp both their differences andsimilarities.

Up-to-Date Coverage. The contents are up to date and include common
neologisms that other dictionaries miss, such asshuākǎ ‘swipe a card, pay by card’.

bókè ‘blog’ andSKIP System. Another unique feature is the System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns(SKIP), an indexing system that enables the user to locate characters as
quickly and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries. Originallydeveloped for Japanese kanji, this efficient system can be learned in a very
short time and is easy to use. Widely used in various paper and electronicdictionaries, SKIP has gained widespread popularity throughout the world.

Character Meanings. Many dictionaries often do not provide character
meanings on the word building level. Even in the cases where it is given,
the meaning is often too vague or abstract. Clear, complete, and accuratecharacter meanings, illustrated by numerous compounds, are groupedaround the core meaning in a logically structured manner that allows them
to be perceived as an independent word (free) or word element (bound),and how countless compounds are generated from a few thousand basicunits.

In-depth Meanings. The meanings are presented in clusters around a core
meaning so that they can be perceived as a logically structured,
psychologically integrated unit. Each sense is illustrated by numerous
compounds arranged in a way that shows how they are formed from theirconstituents.

Pinyin Readings. This dictionary gives accurate pinyin for every Chinese word
and character. In some dictionaries, the pinyin is only given for thecharacter itself, while in others pinyin is not given for compounds.

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Reference Data. This dictionary is also an excellent reference tool. It provides ahost of supplementary information such as the Traditional Chinese andJapanese character forms, Japanese readings, character codes, frequency
ranking, the HSK level, and more.

Attractive Design. Another distinctive feature is a layout that is both visuallyattractive and easy to use. Typographical design with the aid of cuttingedge font technology is used to achieve a harmonious blend of font styles
and weights, resulting in an esthetically pleasing design that stimulates adesire to browse and to truly enjoy studying Chinese characters.

Stroke Order. Unlike other dictionaries, which rely heavily on cross-referencing,the order of the writing is presented stroke-by-stroke for every character toensure maximum convenience to the user.

Compliance with HSK. The Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (汉语水平考试) is theworld's most well-known Chinese language proficiency test aimed atassessing learners’ language skills. This dictionary includes all charactersand words used in all HSK levels and indicates the HSK level for each word.

4. Is it easy for beginners to use?
For the first time, learners of Chinese have at their fingertips a wealth of
information on Chinese characters that is linguistically accurate andcarefully adapted to their practical needs. Modern linguistic theory has beeneffectively integrated with sophisticated information technology to produce
a powerful learning tool.
Many Chinese character dictionaries are not designed with the beginner inmind. Often, confusing organization and/or lookup methods hinder thelearner from finding the desired entry, assuming that the reader has somebackground knowledge before using the dictionary. The lack of an efficientsystem for ordering Chinese characters has long been a source of frustration
to learners of Chinese. The traditional method of looking up by radicals istime-consuming and unreliable. To overcome these difficulties, this
dictionary uses the popular lookup method called SKIP (invented by theauthor).

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This system has gained popularity among users of Japanese kanji
dictionaries and dictionary software, since it enables even beginners tolocate characters as quickly and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries.
Since the system can be learned in a very short time and is easy to use, this
dictionary is an extremely convenient learning tool.

5. What are the drawbacks of existing dictionaries?
The most common drawbacks of existing dictionaries, all of which this
dictionary has successfully addressed, are listed below.
 Many dictionaries do not provide character meanings on the wordbuilding level.
 Current dictionaries are not up to date and don’t include very
common words likeand.
 Compound words do not always have pinyin.
 Stroke order for every element of the character on a stroke-by-stroke
basis is not commonly shown.
 Stroke order diagrams are sometimes unsuitable as a model forwriting.
 English equivalents are often too vague.
 The lookup methods are not always intuitive for beginners, often
assuming some background knowledge.
 Some dictionaries are large and clumsy to use or hold.
 The design is poor, resulting in fonts that are sometimes too smalland illegible.

56. System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP)
汉字 型 式 検 字 法
NoPatternClassification

Examples12

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4* The examples shown in the above table apply to Japanese kanji only6

7. How SKIP works
Each character is classified under one of four easy-to-identify patterns. Within eachgroup the characters are further subdivided into smaller subgroups. For example,
汉 is classified under pattern 1, left-right. 汉 has three strokes in the shaded partand two strokes in the blank part, and thus appears under pattern 1, subsection 3-2.

汉1–3–2

Subsection Number
Stroke-count of blank part

Stroke-count of shaded part
Pattern number (1 =)Pattern symbol (left-right)

78. Page Sample for “liu”

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9. Introducing Jack Halpern
President & CEO, The CJK Dictionary InstituteEditor-in-Chief, Kanji Dictionary Publishing Society
Research Fellow, Showa Women’s University
Jack Halpern (春遍雀來) is the CEO of the CJK Dictionary Institute (CJKI) in Japan.
The institute, which is one of world's prime sources for CJK (Chinese, Japanese andKorean) dictionaries, specializes in the compilation of comprehensive CJK andArabic lexical databases for the NLP industry. A lexicographer by profession, forsixteen years he engaged in the compilation of the New Japanese-English Character
Dictionary, and as a research fellow at Showa Women's University (Tokyo) was
editor-in-chief of several kanji dictionaries for learners, which have become
standard reference works.
Jack Halpern, who has lived in Japan over 40 years, was born in Germany and lived
in six countries including France, Brazil and the United States. An avid polyglot
who specializes in Japanese and Chinese lexicography, he has studied 15 languages,ten of which he speaks mostly fluently, and has devoted several decades to the studyof languages and lexicography. Winner of first prize in the International SpeechContest in Japanese, Jack Halpern is the founder and director of the Japan Yiddish
Club, he has taught his native Yiddish to Japanese students. His favorite language is
Brazilian Portuguese, which he speaks fluently and considers "God's mothertongue."Jack Halpern published over twenty books and dozens of articles and academic
papers, mostly on the Japanese writing system and CJK information processing, hasgiven over 600 public lectures on Japanese language and culture, and presented
several dozen papers at international conferences.
On a lighter note, Jack Halpern loves the sport of unicycling. Founder and longtime president of the International Unicycling Federation, he has promoted thesport worldwide for several decades, has started the unicycling in Japan, and is adirector of the Japan Unicycling Association. Currently, his passion is playing thequena and improving his Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic.

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