Hi,
I'm aspiring N2 in Japanese. While I generally can understand the grammar and the flow of conversations in Japanese, it is really vocabulary and main ideas of paragraphs that I struggle with. So often, for example, when I look up words like the word "hikkakeru", I encounter 7 definitions in English, and I need to determine which is the one that relates to the sentence I'm reading.
I was wondering – for those who have achieved N1 or even N2, whether you have become more accustomed or feel it is more efficient to learn words by looking up in a Japanese-English dictionary versus a Japanese only dictionary.
I'm also conversational in French. For French, because there are so, so many semi-false cognates, where the word has a slightly significant difference in meaning, and the grammar is so similar to English, most advanced speakers argue that to get nuance in French as a learner, it is better to look up words in a French only dictionary.
However, in my attempts to use a Japanese dictionary, I find learning vocabulary with a Japanese dictionary to be much slower even if I understand the meaning. I find that the definitions evoke too many things that are unknown or intangible. Maybe I'm still having trouble with the grammar of the definition, or perhaps it is an artifact of the fact that I am still learning the language.
Also, to some extent when reading stories and conversations in Japanese, I feel like translating word for word is actually a very useful technique, because the grammar of the language will force you to think of nouns and verbs in stacks, while I feel like the difficult point in Japanese is the visualization of the noun talked about, which is where the English translation helps a lot.
What's your experience been? Has it been the case for you that using Japanese only dictionaries best for learning at the intermediate/advanced (N2/N1) stage? Is there a tradeoff between efficiency and speed, versus the skill of thinking natively in Japanese?
by BlueLensFlares
14 comments
I just took the JLPT N2 in July so I’m waiting for my score (so idk I’m truly n2 or not lool) but… I use both.
Sometimes I go for all Japanese, sometimes I go for English. However when I do go for English, I use JACCENT, a free dictionary app that also has AI and if u change the settings to Japanese, the AI will give u a definition of that word in Japanese while also providing a translation in English. It’s the best of both worlds I guess.
In general, I don’t really have a process, I just go with the flow. What you could do is go with English and see how they explain the same thing but in JP.
Good luck!
Also if you’d like a chat buddy in JP my discord is orcapirate7183 🙂
For me personally, I will most of the time look up a new word in a monolingual dictionary (if you have an apple device dictionaries by monokakido is a paid app, but there’s no better dictionary app around). If I decide to add it to my SRS reviews though I will just associate an English meaning to it and practice it like that. There are often words I’ll look up to see what they mean and then not add them to my SRS though, either because the word isn’t one I feel the need to add (just yet), or because it’s rare and I don’t want to bother. Reading monolingual dictionaries is awesome though, first of all to see how it would be defined by a Japanese speaker, second to help you “think” in Japanese instead of translating and third because it’s extra free reading practice 🙂
JP-JP dictionaries are very useful, I try to use them as much as I can.
That being said sometimes it is slower or harder to understand.
What I do is when I’m immersing I look up words in a JP-ENG dictionary, I mine words from my immersion and add them to anki.
When I learn the words in anki later, I put the definition from a JP-JP dictionary.
Often I feel like the English definition is lacklustre so I chek the Japanese definition even during immersion, and often I still add just the English definition to an anki card even even though I have over 10k cards. After you start doing this you kind of get used to what you should look up from which dict etc.
For example, words that have a one-to-one translation don’t need not be looked up from a monolingual dictionary.
林檎 ・〘植〙バラ科の落葉高木。葉はとがった楕円（だえん）形で、晩春、白い花をつける。果実は球形で赤・黄・薄緑色などがあり、食用。《季・秋》
VS
林檎・apple (fruit)
I think /u/amygdala666 has the right answer. There are plenty of words where a single English word is insufficient and it’s better to use J-J dictionaries. But there are also many cases when it is way simpler to just look up the English. There’s no real benefit to learning that 台風 refers to 東経１８０度より西の北西太平洋および南シナ海に存在する熱帯低気圧のうち、最大風速が約１７m/s以上になったものを指します。
For concrete nouns (like 太陽、植物、山…) I like to use Jitendex which is a very nicely formatted JMDict.
For more abstract nouns (想像、思考、感覚…) and basically everything else I like 例解学習国語辞 the most since it’s for elementary kids, and so the definitions are very simple and use very common words. It helps to distinguish between otherwise similar verbs and concepts, and most definitions come with a simple example sentence. For example:
かんじょう【感情】
〘名〙カン ジョー
うれしい、悲しいなどを感じる心の動き。
例: 感情をこめて詩を朗読する。
対: 理性。
Brilliant.
I’m still a beginner but I have learned English before and in my experience, it is always better to use the English definition since it help with reading and thinking in English, plus if you feel that it is slower that just mean your reading skill is not good enough which is all the more reason to use a Japanese dictionary
Although if you encounter another new word in the definition itself it is probably better to just translate it to your native language
A lot of people swear by jp‐jp dictionaries, but personally I find dictionary definitions painful to read, regardless of the language. I usually just use Jisho.org which is jp-en. If I’m still unclear on the meaning, then there’s a good chance I’m not the only one, so I Google Xとは or X Y 違い and usually that’ll pull up a bunch or articles written for native speakers explaining the meaning, nuances, and use cases. I find those long form explanations much more helpful than short dictionary entries
About N1 level, never did monolingual dictionaries. I find that it’s better to look up something and get a quick and easy to understand result in english. I never want to stop in the middle of my listening or reading to read a paragraph long definition for a word, I’d rather focus on what I’m consuming.
Nuance comes with immersion and occasionally looking up the difference between words I’m confused about.
It may be frustrating, but I think the solution for your problem is to do more listening. Try things like youtubers for something more natural and less scripted like shows and anime. (I recommend doing a mix of both)
I’m adding news words to Anki with yomichan and have few jp/jp dictionaries and one English. If I can’t understand Japanese dictionary I check the English one and it makes sense, but since I’m not an English native speaker I often don’t understand even English definition. If I still dint understand the word I look it online on Google and check images on try to search it on Wikipedia (then change the language to my native polish). Sometimes I just translate the japanese definition to Polish.
Japanese definitions have often more informations about how to use the word, but sometimes it’s enough to use English definitions, especially with words like names of plants, animals, etc
I use both. Usually a J-E/E-J to get the meaning and a J-J if there’s a point that I need clarified, like the difference between two synonyms.
About N1 level, about 20 books read so far, still a long way to go but at a decent level. I usually only use English translations unless I’m reading on my Kindle which has a built in dictionary.
If the English translation is lacking, I just go to Google and ask for a definition. Going straight to an English translation is far more efficient and if you’re reading/listening to a lot of Japanese, you only really need it as the spark to create a solid understanding in your mind. (Imo obv)
Sometimes tho, English translations aren’t very good at all or are incredibly lacking, for example with 束縛 I get: restriction, to restrict
When I Google it tho I get:
恋愛における「束縛」は、他の異性との交流を制限したり、予定を全て教えることを強要したり、こまめに連絡を欲しがったりするなど、恋人を無理やり独占しようとする行為を指します。
Which more so matches how I found it in conversation.
My experience – and advice – is to graduate out of English language resources as quickly in the journey as possible.
Going “through” English always introduces a layer and slows things down. It’s always a challenging journey and doesn’t become easy overnight. But I recommend deliberately pushing yourself to gradually move away from English language dictionaries and aim for 100% withdrawal.
Language schools in Japan are generally 100% Japanese in class, although the written vocabulary resources tend to have a one word translation (English, Chinese, Korean, etc.). I assumed everyone memorized words in their native language but I’m not sure that is actually the case.
Even some JLPT 1 and 2 resources (e.g. So-Matome) do that. The example sentences are in Japanese.
But at some point, it makes sense to jump.
Tips for moving to Japanese only dictionaries
[https://community.wanikani.com/t/monolingual-dictionary-corner/58250](https://community.wanikani.com/t/monolingual-dictionary-corner/58250)
I mainly learn new words contextually these days, but if I had to look one up, it would be on Google (type 何々とは or 何々使い方). If it’s a complex abstract word I know in English and need to get the Japanese version, I use a translation dictionary app or type something like “Dialectical materialism 意味” into a search engine.