Good Japanese to English Dictionary?

Japanese Language
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Due to my work, I’m constantly stuck in an area where I’m not allowed to have a phone or any other device that can transmit information for long periods of time. There will be hours where I have nothing to do, but I can’t leave. I figured it’d be nice to spend that time learning Japanese. However, all of my resources aside from manga online. Therefore, I figure if I just got a Japanese to English dictionary, I can continue studying.

I can’t seem to figure out which ones would work for my intended purposes. There are tons of dictionaries for English speakers, but I’m not sure if they’re to look up English words, or to look up Japanese words.

Thank you!

EDIT: It seems that I wasn’t very clear with what I plan to do. I have manga in Japanese that I want to read and learn from, but I don’t have access to the internet, so I figured I could use a Japanese > English paper dictionary to help with that. Good grammar books are appreciated too if you know any. I wasn’t particularly fond of Genki. Really expensive for very little information.

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Are you talking about a paper dictionary? Kenkyusha and Wisdom are probably the best, but as far as paper goes you’d have to look up words by Japanese. If you want the other way around I’m not sure offhand.

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Yes, a paper dictionary. I need to be able to look up the Japanese words, because I do not know what they mean in English. Thank you!

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Hmm…so you want to just read a dictionary? Or did you choose to ask about a dictionary because they are usually so information packed?

How about the popular grammar dictionaries that are often recommended on here? I have the first one only, and it is really nice. I can spend hours browsing it and reading the sentences and examples. Of course, I am in the exact opposite situation as you are, when I’m at work, I can usually only sneak a bit of time to study Japanese online. :slight_smile:

ETA: Nevermind. I understand now, after re-reading the thread. You’re looking for J->E dictionaries. Sorry, I can’t help there.

1 Like
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There will be hours where I have nothing to do, but I can’t leave. I figured it’d be nice to spend that time learning Japanese

why don’t you use that time and work with a textbook (e.g. MNN or Genki)? If you have several hours/day at work where you can do that you will progress quite quickly. You won’t need internet for that and it will be more useful than having just a dictionary with you

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Then yes, either of those are your two best options. I have Wisdom on my computer, but a paper version of Kenkyusha that’s like 25 years old I got at Book Off for $1 and it’s served me well.

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