English-Japanese and Japanese-English Dictionary

[UrikosRandomStalker]

for the record, they do have dictionaries with both japanese and english words. meaning 1/2 the book is a japanese dictionary, and the other 1/2 is an english dictionary. both sides will translate the word to the other language.

[sushidushi]

Yikes! I was hoping for an easier way to be able to translate a few pictures of billboards and street signs and so on.

Originally Posted by Yonsu

Umm, my best guess would be to get a kanji dictionary. I haven't run across any 'regular' dictionaries that also list things by kanji. In the kanji dictionary, it should sort by A) stroke number, and/or B) grade level in which the kanji is taught. The kanji dictionary should have both the on and kun readings, so you would get the pronounciation of the kanji, then get the 'regular' dictionary and search for the correct entry. DX Inconvenient!

EG) say you didn't know the word 中間, for example. You would get the kanji dictionary and search for the character 中 (4 strokes). The reading is chuu/naka. Then search for 間 (12 strokes), whose reading is kan/ken/aida/ma. I still haven't figured out how you're supposed to tell if you read it as on or kun reading (maybe it's based on the actual word the kanji is used in?), but most likely the word 中間 is pronounced with the on reading. Now that you know the reading of 中間, you would go to your 'regular' dictionary and search for the word chuukan, with the correct kanji listed next to the romaji. =]

[sushidushi]

Are there such dictionaries that list the Japanese words by kanji, or would they be listed in romaji or hiragana?

I hope that this will all one day begin to make at least a little sense!

Originally Posted by UrikosRandomStalker

for the record, they do have dictionaries with both japanese and english words. meaning 1/2 the book is a japanese dictionary, and the other 1/2 is an english dictionary. both sides will translate the word to the other language.

[Yonsu]

Originally Posted by sushidushi

Yikes! I was hoping for an easier way to be able to translate a few pictures of billboards and street signs and so on.

Hahah ^^;;;; I hope there is an easier method, too. I'm scared just thinking about learning all the kanji just so I can properly read. T_T I guess you just have to learn them one by one.

[UrikosRandomStalker]

Originally Posted by sushidushi

Are there such dictionaries that list the Japanese words by kanji, or would they be listed in romaji or hiragana?

I hope that this will all one day begin to make at least a little sense!

there are dictionaries that still follow the same rules i mentioned previously in this thread, but they will be listed as kanji first, then hiragana / romanji / katakana. no matter what, all the dictionaries will follow the same rules. so this requires you to be able to know what the kanji is if you wanna look it up >_<

[sushidushi]

Originally Posted by UrikosRandomStalker

...this requires you to be able to know what the kanji is if you wanna look it up

Oh bugger. This is going to be a tough language to learn.

Why can't the Japanese adopt a different writing system, just for me?

[Yonsu]

Originally Posted by sushidushi

Oh bugger. This is going to be a tough language to learn.

Why can't the Japanese adopt a different writing system, just for me?

hahaha XD Don't we all. As horrible learning kanji is, I think it helps make Japanese such a rewarding language to learn.

And plus, if you get around to learning kanji, you've pretty much made it a hundred times easier to learn the other Asian languages that have connections to Chinese.

[sushidushi]

DO kanji always have the same meaning in Chinese as they do in Japanese, or have the adopted kanji sometimes taken on slightly different meanings in Japanese?

I haven't studied kanji at all yet, but I did notice a sign in my local Asian (Chinese, chiefly) with the kanji for rice, which I recognised. I was rather proud of myself until I realised that it was the only one I knew. But we all have to start somewhere, ne?

Originally Posted by Yonsu

hahaha XD Don't we all. As horrible learning kanji is, I think it helps make Japanese such a rewarding language to learn.

And plus, if you get around to learning kanji, you've pretty much made it a hundred times easier to learn the other Asian languages that have connections to Chinese.

[Yonsu]

I'm not sure, but I think they're not ALWAYS the same. My chinese friend who is taking Japanese said that some kanji had different meanings from what she learned in Chinese. But I think many are still the same. My mom recognized all the characters I showed her because she had studied them in Korean school a loooong time ago. But they are the more basic characters. So, maybe the basic characters are preserved, but as they get more complicated, the meanings change? O_o;;

[seonsaengnim]

Originally Posted by MMM

In general all the words are arranged in order in Japanese, regardless of which system is used to write it.

Any possibility that software would exist to help convert Kanji to both Hiragana and Katagana when reading it on the internet? I've only learned a couple of hundred kanji ---not nearly enough to understand an e-mail sent to me or to convert a web page to my level.