The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
by Jack Halpern
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack HalpernEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); Japanese (Original Language); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-02-01
ISBN: 4770028555
Number of pages: 1008
Publisher: Kodansha USA
Book Reviews of The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
Book Review: Good to learn kanji and vocabulary
Summary: 5 Stars
The book looks like a traditional dictionary, but in my mind it is more of a learning tool that you should expect to read from beginning to end. Let me explain:
1. One of the stronger features is the visual layout. The layout is pleasing to the eye and the kanji font size is larger that the norm (e.g. Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary). You will understand this point if you have browsed some other dictionaries in the bookstore. The main entry is around 10 x 8 mm large and that is very nice.
2. The dictionary uses black and red. I like that the "core meaning" of each kanji is printed in red. That helps with memorising the kanji (as opposed to words consisting of multiple kanjis). The core meanings sometimes have problems, but they are a bit more complete than Heisig. However, Heisig's keywords are in many cases much better and well thought through. Some problems in Halpern: (a) For instance only American English. (I'm talking about vocabulary, not really spelling. When an American would say state, a Brit would say province, etc.) (b) The book doesn't contain any etymology, if you find those stories meaningful you will have to complement with the book mentioned above. Finally, in many cases the "core meaning" is ancient, but the "core meaning" in the dictionary is modern. That might not really help with memorisation if you try to combine with an etymological approach. One somewhat irritating feature is that some "core meanings" use vocabulary that is is not easy to remember (e.g. easier to remember 'return' than 'give back', and easier to remember 'drunk' than 'become intoxicated'). (c) Anything related to business and economics (and a lot of kanji are) gets a very irritating treatment. The choice of keywords really piss me off sometimes. The author is clearly not knowledgeable about this area in life.
3. A decent selection of vocabulary. I will use these sections to write my own vocabulary flash card. (Sadly furigana isn't provided for the vocabulary - romanji will have to do - not that much a big deal for me). Worse, don't expect any business related vocabulary. For the "compete' kanji you get recital contest, bicycle race, and horse racing, but you do not get competitor. And don't expect any cooking/food related vocabulary.
4. The book focuses on the approved kanji, but since it is ten years old it doesn't include the newly approved additional kanji. The book also includes ~300 name-kanji, but gives vocabulary for these as well. That is a bit confusing, because presumably they're included because they're used in names. Still easy to just disregard this. But it irritates my sense of logic to start giving compounds for characters that are almost exclusively used for names. Anyway, the name-kanji are currently more than 300.
5. One thing that is missing is a more detailed description of the meaning of the kanji. There are many kanji for prosperity, likewise there are many kanji for discuss. I would have like some comment about how they differ (e.g. no systematic different, character X is only used xx, character y is more actively used to create new compounds). However, we do get references to different kun-homonymes. This is very good and give an hint of their different usage.
So the book is not perfect, but really it is pretty good. I give it five stars.
The book also contains something called the SKIP system for organizing the kanji. This is all fine, but slowly getting obsolete by the Internet. When I'm by my computer, the quickest way to look up a kanji is to draw it with the mouse on Microsoft IME and then copy the result to the jisho website. There I get the number of the kanji in the book. This definitely is the fastest way.
I think the book should be used as a learning tool. As a reference dictionary, there will be problem with the amount of vocabulary included and the ordering of the kanji. I suppose for that purpose, a web-dictionary or one of the dedicated Japanese handheld electronic dictionaries would be the next step.
There is also an older larger version of this book, which is even better: NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary. Get that book instead. It has useful usage notes and synonym tables. It also covers a few hundred extra kanjis. I don't think there is anything added in the later shortened edition.
Summary of The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary answers the urgent need for an easy-to-use kanji dictionary compact enough to be easily carried around, yet detailed enough to satisfy the practical needs of the beginning and intermediate learner.Its basic goal is to give the learner a thorough understanding of kanji by providing instant access to a wealth of useful information on the meanings, readings, and compounds. Normally, the learner must memorize numerous compounds as unrelated units. A unique feature of this dictionary that overcomes this difficulty is the core meaning, a concise keyword that defines the dominant sense of each character, followed by detailed character meanings and numerous compounds that clearly show how thousands of building blocks are combined to form countless compound words.
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.
Modern linguistic theory has been effectively integrated with sophisticated information technology to produce the most useful kanji learner's dictionary ever compiled. For the first time, learners have at their fingertips a wealth of information that is linguistically accurate, easy to use, and carefully adapted to their practical needs.
FEATURES
o 2,230 entry characters, including all the kanji in the Joyo and Jinmei Kanji lists
o 41,000 senses for 31,300 words and word elements show how each character contributes to the meanings of compounds
o 1,200 homophones with core meanings explain differences between closely related characters
o 386 variant forms used in prewar literature and in names
o 1,945 stroke order diagrams show you how to write each kanji stroke by stroke
o 7,200 character readings, including name readings
o Over 2,000 cross-references and five appendixes give instant access to a mass of useful reference data
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