The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded: 2nd Edition

Description

A revised, expanded edition of the best-selling Japanese-English character dictionary—the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary of its kind, with over 3,000 characters Japanese language learners now have instant access to a wealth of accurate and in-depth information on kanji , including their meanings, readings, stroke order, and usage in compounds. Includes the System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP) , a revolutionary indexing system that has gained widespread popularity because it enables the user to locate characters as quickly and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries. Features include: • 3,002 kanji entries —772 more than in the first edition—reflecting recent changes in the government-prescribed Jōyō and Jinmei Kanji lists • Includes latest 2020 revision of Education Kanji from 1006 to 1026 • Readings shown in kana instead of romanized Japanese • Core meaning keywords that define the dominant sense of each kanji, followed by character meanings , or specific senses the kanji can have when used in the living language • Thousands more compounds and other usage examples • Expanded coverage of name readings Gives alternative forms of kanji when more than one is considered acceptable according to the most recent Jōyō Kanji specifications • Cross-references to entries in The Kodansha Kanji Dictionary , a revised and expanded edition of the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary Kodansha’s Kanji Learner’s Dictionary is the most powerful kanji-learning tool ever devised. Review: A wonderful teaching/learning tool! - While it contains only a third of the Kanji required to pass the JLP N1 exam (The final JLP exam), it clearly explains the structure of the kanji, particularly with compounds and words that have prefixes and suffixes, which if you already have a good comprehensive Kanji dictionary, can allow you to better understand how the Kanji are structured and why, and therefore better understand the meanings in context(I recommend Merriam-Webster's Japanese English Dictionary as the dictionary to pair with this item, although if you buy it you WILL need a magnifying glass, because the book is a small portable sized book and there are 22,000 translations and 48,000 entry words and phrases, so the font is extremely small). Overall, this is an excellent tool if your goal is to truly understand Kanji, how it is written, and why it is written that way, and can be used to help you learn new Kanji beyond what is contained in the book as well, since its explanations of structure and meanings are so clear and efficient. Review: Well organized and efficient - I was a little intimidated when it came to choosing a kanji dictionary to help me with my Japanese studies. It was crucial that I had one that would be easy and intuitive to use but would have all the critical kanji for both my preliminary goal of being able to read N2 materials and my long term goal of knowing all the kanji for reading fluency. This dictionary so far has really come through for me. It not only has the Joyo and Jinmei kanji needed for basic fluency at N1 (far beyond my current goals), but the radical and pattern indexes used in the book for finding unfamiliar kanji are a breeze to use once you get used to how they work, which doesn't take that long. This dictionary will definitely be the backbone to my kanji studies going forward, and I may even get a second copy for any trips to Japan that I may take.