Review of The Japan Foundation Basic Japanese-English Dictionary by Mark Barton

Considered as an actual Japanese-English dictionary, this is very basic indeed and the student will soon outgrow it, but as a study aid it is truly excellent. Keywords are romaji and in alphabetic order. There are typically at least two example sentences for each word given in both kanji with okurigana and romaji. The idiomatic translation of each example is given in English, with the corresponding word or words highlighted. The variety of the English translations is an effective cure for the notion that a single word in Japanese corresponds to a single word in English. If for nothing else, get it for the dry humour of the last example sentence for the last word, "zutto", on p923.

☆ See all reviews by Mark Barton.