Review: The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary

The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary

Edited by Jack Halpern

1999, Kodansha International

ISBN 978-4-7700-2855-6

$39.99 US, but can be found as cheap as $24 and change

I have nothing bad to say about this book, save it was expensive when I bought it, but it is worth every penny. This dictionary is easy to use, fairly portable and contains 2200+ kanji. The SKIP system employed by the dictionary could not make it easier to find a character, and each entry has several examples per reading of a given kanji. Just browsing the book makes for an interesting read.

Review: Japanese Step by Step

Japanese Step by Step:

An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese

Nishi, Gene

2000; McGraw-Hill

ISBN 0-658-01490-0

$16.95 US (a new edition will be published soon at $12.00)

New edition pictured; Image from Amazon

I bought this book about 2 years ago and it remains a favorite. I absolutely adore Nishi's code for conjugation, which simplifies the process of conjugating mentally on the fly. His clear, practical and concise explanations are practical and easily bring the student to an intermediate level of grammar. And the index for counters and numbers is a rich resource for the beginning and advanced student.However, vocabulary is somewhat lacking; although it possesses one of the richest compendiums of verbs that I've ever seen, as well as a large index of counter-words,the lack of a comprehensive noun glossary makes this book a little less than adequate for it to remain a core text for self-study.Still, this book is great for a beginner, or if one already knows some Japanese from travel/phrase books and are looking to take the next step without enrolling in a course, or don't want to tackle a textbook.