Random House Japanese-English, English-Japanese Dictionary Mass Market Paperback – 1 Sept. 1996

This is honestly one of the most useful books I purchased whilst studying Japanese. This isn't a book for a complete beginner as it's a dictionary - it's for those who have started to properly read and write in Japanese. It's useful for checking spellings and looking up words that you need to write in Japanese or for checking the meaning. I know a lot of people rely on the internet these days but this is the book I've used most!

I have seen several romanised dictionaries since I began to learn this language and I must say that this is the best one I have come across so far.With over 50,000 entries, this book should cover most words that a beginner or intermediate learner will encounter.As a beginner in Japanese, I have found the romanised Japanese very helpful. But even better, as I am beginning to learn to read the Japanese characters, the Kanji included next to each translation makes this book even more useful at the next level.It even contains a Romanji/Hiragana/Katakana syllable chart at the start as a handy reference for all level of learners.I would recommend this book to any beginner who has yet to find a decent dictionary and to intermediate learners who are looking for extra resource material.

Excellent value for money. Very comprehensive. I was impressed with the range of words it covered. Ideal for both beginners and more advanced students.

I do not (yet) read Kana, not talking Kanji at all, although you soon find it a must to cross reference the signs when reading books that give both Roma-Ji and Japanese characters. I am studying Japanese mostly by myself and have several Doctionaries. Both larger ones for armchair use and small pocket ones. The RANDOM HOUSE has easily proved to be the one I use most among the larger ones. I also have Takahashi's dictionary, both as a "one-way" modern edition and the 1950ties Jap-Eng and Eng-Jap edition. The latter is hard to get by the way. The erason I like the RANDOM HOUSE book is that I rarely miss words and that it provides enough "meanings of words" to be truly versatile. I am missing some real sentence examples but that would od course also make for a bigger volume. In fact, if you want sentence examples, I prefer to go to Internet and use e.g., TANGO`RIN w½here you find both words and Sentence exaples galore. I now have two copies of the Random House book, one for home and one for the beach house. So, highly recommended and the typeface is so big that it can be read easily, also by nearsighted people.

Purchsed this for my son who's learning Japanese. He is delighted with this product. Says it's easy to use and has been very helpful.

shipped fast, easy to use book, im in the first year of japanese and this is a life saviour

The book was as new

Good

I especially like that you can look up the Japanese words in romanji with kanji also listed

Granted the book is a bit dated, so you won't find many Internet related terms (or even the word "Internet" itself) -- but I still give it 5 Stars and seriously suggest you give it a consideration rather than just skipping it because it's not super current...I have multiple Japanese dictionaries, of various sizes. Most are either Japanese To English, or they're English-To-Japanese -- but it's a pain carrying around 2 different and separate dictionaries. I do have a couple of really tiny "travel" dictionaries which contain both Japanese & English sections, but I'm in my mid 60's and my eyesight can barely see it (I have to carry a magnifier with me just to barely read the small print text) -- even when I was younger, the print is so small it would have been frustrating (and the vocabulary they hold are very minimal and lacking).Even though this publication was old, the price was so low that I figured I may as well give it a try (since I saw it was the size of a normal paperback book, which would hopefully mean easier print size to be able to read).It arrived fairly quickly, and I was glad to see it was indeed the size of a normal paperback book [first thing I did even before reading it was to see it it would fit easily in the inside pocket of my jean jacket, and it did. It's a decent size content size as well [1" thick], so it seemed to have far more available word translations and examples or meanings than the tiny 'Travel' dictionaries I had.The paper is more towards the older newsprint style paper rather than smooth white, but the text is very easy to see and read.The Japanese-To-English is in Romaji (romanization of Japanese Kana), so it would help if you know a little Hiragana and Katakana [so you can easily see how to spell the word you want to look up]. It also includes some English word mean variances (n., adj, etc.) and meanings -- as well as the Japanese Kana writing of the wordThe English-To-Japanese [which is in the 2nd half of the book] has a pretty decent coverage, including multiple Japanese word options depending on the desired meaning, usage, and context -- and is in Romaji [so you can roughly know how to approximately pronounce the words even if you don't know any Japanese Kana characters or lettering at all], as well as full Japanese Kana [Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji] which might make it easier if you need to point to the word you're trying to say.So why Five Stars for such an older book?Excellent Travel Size - fits in case, purse, or pocket (just the way pocket paperbacks were originally designed to do) easily -- and even with old eyes it's easier to see and read than the microscopic and frustrating mini Travel booksDoesn't have more modern words and terms, but it does contain a fairly extensive word variety & vocabulary depthEnglish letter Romaji (for those with zero Japanese), as well as Japanese KanaPretty decent variety for contextual selection of words (translating English into Japanese) and short examples.Price -- considering how expensive language books can be, this edition has stayed at old school type normal [reasonable] low cost pricingWhile many people may think (I can just Google translations on my phone) -- what happens when batteries run low, no phone signal in some areas, or you're in an area where phones are not allowed [e.g. areas in Japan with No Phones Or Photos Allowed] etc. Having an easy to carry paperback option is a worthwhile backup (and a lot less fiddling and scrolling).Then again, if you're reading this review, then chances are you're actually looking for a paper dictionary to begin with -- So, considering how inexpensive this book sells for, definitely give it a chance and order it. For myself, this book has meant that I no longer have to tote around multiple dictionaries to translate back and forth between Japanese and English.I'm glad I gave it a try and bought it. Very happy with the purchase, and really worthwhile value.

Tal como anunciado. Gostei

Algo está a correr terrivelmente mal com o processo de impressão destes dicionários. O meu com poucos minutos de uso já tem montes de páginas soltas. Que pena.

Not every word in the languages is to be found, but the most common and helpful ones are - even with explaination sometimes. There's always a ro-maji and a kana version of each word / expression.Btw. it's pretty small, you could easily take it with you on trips in hand luggace (10cm x 17cm)!