The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary

I cannot recommend this dictionary highly enough. There is simply no better dictionary for beginning and intermediate students, and it can be used even into advanced studies. I will be taking the Japanese Proficiency test for 2 kyu soon, which requires reading over 1,200 kanji, and I still use this dictionary. If it had been published when I first began my Japanese study, I might be making plans to take the 1 kyu test instead of 2 kyu. It's that good.When I came to Japan, I inherited three kanji dictionaries from various sources, and they were all basically useless, even though I had already studied Japanese off and on for a total of about a year's worth of university-level coursework. I went shopping for a new dictionary a few months after getting here, and thankfully I found the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, which had just been published a short time before.The SKIP lookup system makes so much sense that I wonder why no one had ever thought of it before. While it does take a small amount of practice to become completely proficient in using SKIP, the traditional indexing by radical is so cumbersome that you often have to fall back on the possible readings (on-yomi or kun-yomi) for a character to find the right entry. If you are trying to find a totally unfamiliar kanji, whose reading you don't know, this is completely hopeless.The Kanji Learner's dictionary also includes a radical index for those who learned the traditional system, or for the very few cases where looking things up by radical is faster or easier. In other dictionaries, main indexing is _only_ by radical. This is a problem since many modern kanji have been simplified so much that the original radical it is traditionally indexed under has been simplified out of existence. That was something I didn't know until I had already been studying Japanese for over a year. After looking for one character ("au," to meet) for almost 5 minutes, I had to ask my teacher where it was indexed in the class dictionary.My test for which dictionary to buy was actually to see how easy it would be for someone with no prior knowledge to find the kanji for "au." Most dictionaries (and my teacher) list it under the radical entry for sun, which is no longer present in the modern form of the character. If you didn't already know about the "lost" radical you wouldn't be able to find it at all by using a traditional index, and if you already know that much about the kanji, you don't really need a dictionary to look it up!The entries in the Kanji Learner's Dictionary include the most commonly-used compounds, grouped by reading, and unlike almost every other dictionary I've seen so far, it includes words that do not use the entry kanji in the front position. The compound words include many technical terms and words that are often used in publications, but often are hard to find in anything other than a massively exhaustive word dictionary. The possible readings (yomi) are written in roman letters (romaji).

I recently received the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary and I must say that I had my expectations fully met. Not only because it was all I had read about, but the edition was excellent, the size just perfect to carry around and the design is the main feature of the dictionary.I had seen about 20 diferent dictionaries and I finally decided for this one (I must say that this is my first year with the language so that was a very important reason). Let me tell you this straight: the book is for a basic-intermediate level (and it is designed as a pedagogic tool) so if you are a rookie or don't get well with the kanji, this book is for you. But if you know a considerable amount of kanji forget it, it only has 2230 so you better look for the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary, wich it's also got th SKIP, core meaning, stroke orders, etc, but is not so aimed to the learning.Finally, the forget about the Nelson-like mamut dictionaries, the kosansha's editions are very superior (not in quantity of kanji but in quality, organization and in-deph.

I'm not sure why I took so long to write a review for this dictionary ... I've been using the Kanji Learner's Dictionary for almost three years now and have nothing but good things to say about it. The best thing about this dictionary is its size. All of the commonly used kanji and kanji compounds are included in a compact volume. When you're reading a newspaper article and come across an unfamiliar kanji/compound, or when you're writing a letter (or homework, etc.) and you can visualize a character but can't quite remember how it's written, who wants to lug out some 100 pound (slight exaggeration) kanji dictionary when you can quickly leaf through this one?Granted, once you get out of the beginning stages, you will need a more thorough dictionary. But I have found myself going back to this one every single time, unless there's a character or compound that doesn't appear in it (but honestly, I would say that happens only 1-5% of the time). It's that convenient.If you are looking for your first kanji dictionary, definitely buy this one- you'll find yourself going back to it again and again. If you only have a huge kanji dictionary, buy this one too- you'll love the size, and be surprised by the fact that this dictionary actually has the vast majority of kanji/compounds that you're looking for ...

This is so well-designed, it is a joy to use.(I'm in my second year of learning Japanese [Japanese for Busy People series], first term of real attention to Kanji.)The SKIP system is just one of five ways of looking up kanji; I've used them all now (even the frequency-ranking one). It's nice but just one facet of the dictionary."Little things" like the layout, the indices, the introductory explanations, the paper, the font, the size are all so good that one doesn't even really notice them, they just seem natural, like a good tool should be. Now other dictionaries (like the complete Nelson which I have and respect and still use when necessary) seem awkward, if not ugly.The keywords in red and the organization of the definitions really do help give (to this novice anyway) a feel for the core meanings.Plus, for computer use, the Unicode numbers are given which is a big time-saver (for me anyway).It's hard to imagine a more perfectly balanced kanji dictionary for the beginner.

Tracking found kanji compounds is still not always the quickest thing to do (I can still mis-count numbers of strokes, etc.,) but with some patience it is possible with this dictionary to find virtually any kanji you set out hunting for. And when you find it, that's where the real value is--core meanings, rankings according to frequency of use, stroke order diagrams, and most of all a wack of compounds containing the kanji in question, regardless of where it appears in the compound. You're sure to feel empowered in your running battle with the outrageous number of kanji to be reckoned with in this nutty language. Gotta love it.