I am mainly talking about novels on my blog, but I am also reading some non-fiction books. I realised some time ago that self-improvement books were surprisingly easy to read in Japanese and can be a good start for anyone looking for easy reads.

Of course, I haven’t read enough books of personal development to state it as a general rule, but I would be prepared to bet that most writings in this domain are relatively non-challenging. Based on the books that I have read or am reading and the ones I have flipped through in bookshops, I found some characteristics that make these books easy to read in Japanese:

Easy to read for Japanese too

I think that these books want to reach a wide public, including people who don’t particularly like reading novels or complicated writings. Many of these books are designed for people who work a lot and don’t generally have the time or the energy to engross themselves in long reading sessions. As a consequence, the interior layout of the books are generally following these rules:

• The book is well structured with short chapters and a lot of subchapters.
• The writer uses short sentences and short paragraphs
• The style is casual, it looks like the author is talking to us directly.

Clarity is the key

These books want to convey a message and, if possible, convince the reader. Usually, when you want people to understand and adhere to your message, the best thing is to state it as simply and clearly as possible. This results in:

• The author does not use complicated style, sentences or kanji. It is not a novel, so the author does not try to “write well” but keeps it simple.
• The same things are often repeated several times, to be sure that the reader understood them.
• There are no unclear implications or underlying messages. The author does not imply things, he just states them clearly.
• At the end of the chapter, we often find a short recap.
• There are often concrete examples and anecdotes.

Publishers also participate

To make the book even more agreeable to read, publishers usually adopt a certain design:

• These books are often sold in a rather big format, not like novels.
• Contrary to novels, there is a lot of space on each page. It is perfect to take notes and write down vocabulary (if you don’t mind writing in your books)
• The chapters are often divided into small subchapters (sometimes only 2 or 3 pages), which is perfect to make small reading sessions.
• Some sentences that convey the main message are often written in bold or colour. This means that even if you did not quite understand what the author said before, understanding these sentences is enough to understand the main point. It is somehow comforting when one reads in a foreign language.
• Some books have colour, graphics and drawings that help the comprehension.

It is not a story

The problem with reading novels in a foreign language is that the miscomprehension is cumulative. What I mean is, if you don’t understand a passage and move on, you may miss a key element for the story. Chances are that you won’t understand the next passage neither because you missed something previously. And so on. As a result, reading becomes more and more difficult until we finally give up.

Even though self-improvement books also convey a message, I never felt that one has to have read the first chapter to understand the second one. It seems that each chapter focuses on a different point. Inside each chapter, I also feel that there is a lot of small points that can be understood separately. As a result, not understanding a passage does not prevent you from understanding what follows. And anyway, the main points are often repeated several times or written in bold. Understanding only that is enough to move on.

Gratifying reads

Finally, self-improvement books are written for Japanese adults so that reading them is more gratifying than reading books for children or books designed for Japanese learners.

Contrary to children books, they talk about what adults know well: studies, work, relationships, self-esteem and so on. Moreover, the message they convey is never hard to grasp. They generally tell you how to improve yourself, trust your own choice, gain self-esteem or things like that. This means that it is never hard to guess what the author wants to say.

Last but not least, these books’ contents are generally very motivating!

My personal experience

I never read self-improvement books before reading in Japanese, it is not my favourite genre. The reason why I started reading such writings was to read something relaxing in Japanese. It is very gratifying to me to be able to turn the pages so quickly (because it is easy to read and because there is not so much text written on each page!). Especially when I am reading a difficult novel that gives me the impression to have made no progress at all, having such a book as a second read is very comforting.

There are usually very few unknown kanji to me so that I can do two things:

• looking up words in the dictionary (something I don’t do when there are too many unknown words or while reading novels)
• read out loud without stumbling much across words I can’t pronounce.

And now, I start appreciating self-improvement books for themselves (not just for studying Japanese), they are a source of motivation and positiveness.

3 books that I can recommend

The first book I read was 「自分を操る超集中力」by メンタリストDaiGo, published by かんき出版. Compared with the other books, this one is the most challenging regarding vocabulary. But it also has a lot of illustrations (I am not good at taking pictures, I know):

As you can see, the main argument is marked in blue, and even if you don’t understand everything that is written, the drawing makes it clear!

As the title says, this books is all about concentration and willpower. I found some interesting ideas in it.

The second book is 「無意識はいつも正しい」by クスドフトシ, published by ワニブックス.

Here again, you can see that some sentences are in colour, others are in bold. (the page on the left precedes the one on the right).

I find this book very easy to read. The subchapters are very short, the author does not use any difficult words, he gives a lot of concrete situation and examples to illustrate his point. I feel that the author always wants to be sure that the reader is following him. He takes special care in repeating the important things and dividing his speech into small bites.

As for the contents, there were things that convinced me, and others less, but it is overall an interesting and motivating read.

Finally, 「好きなことだけして生きていく」by 心屋仁之助（こころや・じんのすけ）, published by PHP:

Here again, colour and bold to mark the important thing. As you can see, the sentences are very short and the author just start a new line with every new sentence!

As I said before, you can start reading this passage and understand what the author wants to say, even if you haven’t read what was before.

This book is maybe the easier of the three. The author talks about his own experience too, which makes it interesting. I was not convinced by everything he said, but there are also things that I adhere to. I would not say that I learned much, but I am always grateful when I can read something in Japanese without much effort!

Conclusion

I can’t say for sure that all self-improvement books are easy to read, but the two last titles I gave as examples are really easy. It looks like the authors had written their book following the rule “write your book using less than (number) kanji”.

All three books are published by different publishers, but all share the same layout characteristics.

There are a lot of books in this genre with the most attractive titles in Japanese!

Since I started reading the news in Japanese, I am telling myself that I must learn Japan prefectures. I have finally taken the first step by doing my own map with furigana and English.

Why learn Japan prefectures and region?

I suppose that Japanese learners who studied Japanese at school or university have gone through Geography classes and have a good overview of the country’s layout. The problem with self-learning is that nobody forces you to learn what you don’t like. And me, I don’t like Geography, so I have never taken the trouble to learn Japan’s regions, prefectures and main cities, though of course, I do know some of them.

But then, I was very limited when it comes to reading the news. Every time I saw a prefecture name in an article, I had to copy-paste it in Google to find its pronunciation and see where it was. With all the unknown words I have to struggle with in any political article, it just added an unnecessary difficulty. Worse, I sometimes wasn’t able to recognise a prefecture’s name as such, particularly in titles where the kanji 県 is often omitted.

In novels too, I hadn’t a clue when a prefecture was mentioned. Contrary to reading the news (where I have my browser opened so that googling something does not take much time) I would not interrupt my reading a novel to look up a prefecture name in Google, I could not even copy-paste it. So I would just ignore the information. I knew that a prefecture was mentioned, but I could not tell which one or where it was.

And of course, the same goes for films, culinary specialities, festivals, famous places, people and so on. In fact, knowing a country’s geography is important…

My goal

I want to be able to:

• know approximately where a prefecture is on a map. At least, I would like to be able to associate a prefecture to a region
• read without frowning and sighing any prefecture names in kanji when I see one.

How I will proceed

I have decided to not use Anki and try a more natural learning system.

To remember where a prefecture is and associate images with it:

First, what I will systematically do is look up a prefecture on my map whenever I hear or read about one. I think that this is the best way to remembering, the problem is that it will take ages before I learn the 47 prefectures. But then, why not? I am not in a hurry.

What I will also do is to write down somewhere any information relative to one prefecture. The idea is not to look for information relative to a prefecture on Google but to collect information that I am coming across during my other activities. For example, if I read a magazine with an interesting article about a festival or any other particularity linked to a region, I could write it down. When I read the news, I will associate events to prefectures. For example, 愛媛県・えひめけん is strongly associated with the Kake Gakuen scandal in my head because I see the prefecture’s name in almost every article I read on the subject.

To be able to read the kanji of the prefectures:

While doing the maps, I realised that reading prefectures’ name is not as daunting as it looks like. A lot of pronunciation can be deduced like 秋田・あきた, 愛知・あいち or 徳島・とくしま.

To remember the pronunciation of the kanji, I will use the maps that I have printed. I made my own maps using other maps I found on the Internet and crossing information to have both English and kanji on the same map.

I will use the map “kanji only” to try to read the prefectures out loud and check with the English or furigana map. I also made a “map only” version in case I am able one day to place every prefecture on the map.

PDF link to the maps, please feel free to use them!

• japan prefectures – map only
• japan prefectures – kanji only
• japan prefectures – kanji and furigana
• japan prefectures – kanji and English

Conclusion

I am glad that I have taken some time, at last, to start studying the prefectures. I think that I can learn relatively quickly how to read the names when I only have the kanji, and this will be an immense improvement. It will take me a lot more time to be able to place all the prefectures on the map and start associating them with images of their own, but maybe this could become a new 2018 goal.

Even if I have a lot of things I want to do, I often end up spending most of my time wondering what to do next,  overwhelmed by the multitude of materials to study. Every time that I have time to study Japanese, I think that I should make the best of it but I don’t know what to pick. If I read a novel, I feel like I haven’t studied at all, but if I don’t read, I feel that I am not on the main track anymore (my main goal for 2018 being to read one novel in Japanese per month). I end up doing a little of everything without really progressing in any field. At the end of the day, I feel both guilty and frustrated because I had time to study Japanese but didn’t use it properly.

This is where the bullet journal helps me, but I understood its real benefit only recently when I associated it with what I learned through the book 「自分を操る超集中力」by メンタリストDaiGo. Having to make choice consumes our willpower and thus, affect our capacity to concentrate. One way to spare willpower is to reduce the number of choices we make each day. This is where the daily log of the bullet journal’s method is handy.

Every morning, I start the day by writing down things I want to do for Japanese this day. I adjust it depending on the day and the amount of time I know I can devote to study. I also write the things I want to do in order of priority.

Writing my daily log takes me no more than one or two minutes and this is the only time of the day when I think of what I am going to do and what material I am going to use. Then, all I need to do is to follow my instructions without thinking twice about it. Even if I doubt whether an activity is worth it, I don’t take the time and energy to think about it now, I just do the task because it is written in my daily log. Thinking about the worthiness of this task will be tomorrow’s job when I sit at my desk in the morning and write down my log of the day. The idea is really to stop thinking about the things to do once the daily log is written.

These are two benefits I gained from this method:

• First, I don’t lose energy or willpower every time I complete a task, asking myself what I should study next. More than that, I do not lose myself anymore in pursuing ephemeral goals. A typical example would be, that I suddenly feel that I should improve my listening skills and listen to something in Japanese. I would then spend half an hour (or more!) looking for a drama to watch even though I do have a lot of material to listen to already. Looking at different reviews would consume my willpower and I would end up looking maybe half of the first episode because I would already be tired. The next day, I would certainly have forgotten about this drama and won’t watch it again or won’t use it for study. If watching a drama is part of my plan, then I can add an entry “look for a drama” in my daily log for the next day.
• While doing an activity, I don’t have to worry about the other things that I am not doing at the moment. This is something that happened to me a lot before. For example, I would read a novel but won’t be able to concentrate on it because I still haven’t started writing the post I have to publish on the same day. With the daily log, it never happens because I write things attached to a deadline or important things that need to be done at the top of my list. This means that when I come to other activities, all the things that could rob my attention are already completed. Especially when it comes to reading in a foreign language, concentration is essential. Sometimes, I read a chapter and don’t understand at all what it is about. I read it again sometime later and understand everything. My Japanese ability has not changed, but my concentration level has. I saw how true it was when I worked for the JLPT. Every time I looked at the watch and saw how little time was left I would understand nothing from the texts of the reading part and had to read some parts twice or more. This is because I was focused on the time, not on what I was reading. My strategy was then to stop looking at the time when I start the reading test. I could concentrate on what I read and understand all the text after reading them once. In a way, I could say that using the daily log helps me read better in Japanese!

Shall I write tasks that I want to do every day anyway? 

Writing every day the daily log can sometimes feel very repetitive. For example, let’s say you want to listen to NHK radio news every morning or listen to Japanese songs or an audiobook in the metro when you go to work. This will happen every day of the week, so why bother writing it down every morning? Personally, I find that writing down the same thing every day helps me considerably. First, it doesn’t take that much time. Second, being able to mark this task as “done” is a great source of self-satisfaction. And last, this repetitive system helps me turn this task into a habit. However, if a daily task has acquired the same status as “brushing your teeth” or “drink coffee”, you don’t need to write it. To me, this is true only for “studying my Anki deck”, so I don’t need to write it in my daily log… but I do it anyway because I feel rewarded when I draw the “completed” mark in front of it!

What happens if I can’t finish the list?

To be honest, I almost never come to the end of the list. This is not a problem at all, as I wrote my things to do in order of priority. The important things and the things attached to a deadline (for example, writing this blog’s posts) are all at the beginning of my list. I don’t feel like I failed to do my entire list, I just feel like I planned too much this morning. Seeing how far I was able to get helps me adjust for the next day. I also see what tasks are constantly being left behind. If they are things that I really want to do, I can try to put them at the beginning on my list at least once a week.

Conclusion

I used the daily log until the JLPT of December and it worked well. After December 3rd, I took some break, made a trip and thus, stopped using this method for a while. When I got back to study I felt completely overwhelmed by all the things that I wanted to do. I lost precious days that I could have devoted to studying. Not being productive for one or two days is not a big deal, but if we don’t decide how to use our time and stick to it, the weeks go by and then a whole month is over and we don’t know where it had gone. At the end, saying “I am learning Japanese” would not make any sense anymore, it would only be some kind of state I am in, but not something I actively do.

I really want to have made progress by the end of the year. I really want to be able to read any “mainstream” novel (I mean not Soseki or Nobel prices authors for example), and the Japanese news. These are the two things I want to achieve the most, and I hope that I can post an article at the end of 2018 and say that I achieved these goals. But I could also be posting that “the year is already over and I haven’t studied enough, time definitely goes fast and so on”. So now that we are still at the very beginning of the year, let’s do everything we can to make the best of it!

I am concerned about how to improve my writing skills and I have tried a method that seems to work well.

The idea is to thoroughly study an article in order to collect collocations and expressions that we can use for writing.

Until now, I have entirely relied on Anki to learn new words. This method works like magic to me, but I realised recently that Anki only helps me recognise the words and mainly allows me to improve my reading skills. Which is fine by the way. But the problem is that I don’t always know how to use the words I learn. I don’t want to enter too much information when I create a new card in Anki. First, it would take a lot of time to do so and second, I don’t want to spend too much time studying Anki and I am sure that I would not even bother reading the complementary information when studying my deck. That is why there are a lot of words that I don’t know how to use but it’s only when I started writing in Japanese that I became aware of this problem.

To remedy this problem, I have started to take vocabulary notes relative to articles I read. This is a little different from the news articles I have been studying on this blog because the goal of this was to be able to read the news more comfortably and I focused on understanding the words, not on how to use them. The difference is that, whenever I come across a word that I think could be useful for my (future) writings in Japanese, I spend some time in the dictionary and I note all kinds of useful information about this word: in which context it can be used, what are its different meaning, how it is used and so on. Of course, I don’t write word for word the dictionary contents, I select only information that I think might be useful to me.

Concretely, this is how it works (in blue, examples from articles I have studied so far)

• First, choose an article not too long and not too difficult. I would say that an article about a social issue is a good choice, but it could be whatever you like. A blog post, an article found on the web about a subject that interests you, etc. I personally print it and stock it in a loose leaf folder.
• On a loose leaf that I will place face to face with the article in my folder, I write down all the unknown words of the article. When I read something, I usually try to reduce the number of words that I am looking up and try to guess the meaning of unknown words. Here, on the contrary, we are studying an article, this implies spending time on it and be thorough. I write down the words with their definition in English, an A4 page is usually enough. I always let a margin on the left side of the leaf so that I can use “signifiers” before the words I am writing down. The concept of signifiers come from the bullet journal method: a mark that can be added to a task to prioritise it for example. I am using them a little differently to hierarchise my words. There are different types of words:
  • Very difficult or specialised words that belong to a certain field and that I will probably not use myself. I just write down the definition because if they are jargon from a field that interests me, I might come across them again later. But that’s all, I don’t try to remember them and I don’t draw any signifiers. In fact, to gain time, you could just skip these words. For example, I came across the word 加工肉・かこうにく which means “cold cooked meat”. I am not trying to learn it, but I still write it down because it helps me remember that I came across such words in this article, in case I happen to read them again or hear them somewhere (who knows). 
  • Words I think that I may have the opportunity to use when writing. In front of these words, I draw a triangle, it’s my signifier to say “this word is important and might be useful someday, don’t skip it when you re-read your notes”. For example, the word 肉眼・にくがん that I found interesting and funny. It means “the naked eye”. I also wrote down the expression 肉眼で見える. 
  • Words that can be used in any situation, that is, words not particularly specific to this article and its contents and that I will certainly want to use one day. They can be adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions or of course, verbs and nouns. For these words, I draw a star, which means “to learn and remember” and I devote a little more time to them. I don’t simply look for their definition and write it down, I also read through all the example sentences given in my dictionary. I write down 2 or 3 sentences that I think might be useful. It can be sentences that show how the word can be used or even expressions that I know I will use later when doing writing exercises. These words are the most interesting words so let me give two examples. The word 割り切る・わりきる appeared in an article I read last week, it means “come to a clear decision”. This is the definition I would write on my Anki card, but to be honest, it does not tell me how this word is used. That’s why I also wrote several example sentences like “仕事は仕事、遊びは遊びと割り切る” or “割り切った考え方” (a practical approach) or “割り切った態度” (a business-like manner). Another typical example is the word 倍・ばい. I have this word in my Anki, with the definition “double”… So this time, I wrote down sentences like “倍にする/なる” and even very useful expressions like 金が倍かかる (cost twice as much) or 時間が倍かかる (take twice as much time).
• If I decide to enter some of these words in my Anki deck, I just underline them.
• From time to time, I re-read this list, but only the words with a signifiers.

The idea is really to create a stock of expressions that are ready to use when I need them. This is the best way that I found so far to start collecting colloquial associations. As I saw them either in the article that I read or in my dictionary (in the example sentences) I am sure that they are correct and I can use them with confidence when writing. I don’t know if it applies to everyone but knowing that one expression, one use of a word is colloquial makes me happy and helps me attach some value to what I wrote.

That’s it, I think it’s time to me to leave the comfort zone of passivity to start using the knowledge I have accumulated so far and become able to produce something in Japanese, not just understand it. (I am only speaking of my personal resolutions here, I do consider that understanding a language without speaking it or being able to write it is a highly praisable goal in itself).

おしらせ: Next week is finally the long-awaited Kyoto trip (my second time in Japan). This blog will also take some holiday. There will be no new post next week and I will be back for the Wednesday post on December 27th.

The idea to buy an electronic dictionary never crossed my mind until I read this post from Kotobites some time ago. I knew that electronic dictionaries were popular in Japan, but I never thought of acquiring one, even though I was not entirely satisfied with the dictionary apps I had tried.

After considering the pros and cons of an electronic dictionary, I knew that I needed one. It took me a lot of time to make my way through the extensive choice of dictionaries available in Japan. I decided to go for a Casio and didn’t bother to look at the other brands.

This is a review of my dictionary and how I chose it. Since I bought it, I am using it all the time and never consulted any other app or an online dictionary.

Note: This post is long, but I wanted to note all the information I would have liked to have myself when I began searching for the best dictionary. Before making the purchase, I wasn’t sure whether I would really use it or not. I was afraid to put a lot of money on it and finally continue using my phone and the Internet. I couldn’t find detailed explanations about the practical use of the device (even Casio’s commercial video were not convincing to me). Was it really so handy? Could I buy one without the lower screen to write kanji? etc. If you feel like you need an electronic dictionary but still have doubts, I hope this can help you.

How I chose it?

Step 1: English reviews

Once I realised that I needed an electronic dictionary, I read what I could find about electronic dictionaries online, and the most important information I drew out from my research was: the best Japanese-English dictionary on an electronic device is the 新和英大辞典 edited by 研究社. I confirm that this dictionary is very thorough and useful.

Step 2: Casio website

Then, I headed to Casio homepage, and that’s when I got my first source of consternation: so much choice? And they launch new models every year? It took me some time, but I compared the models I thought might suit me and decided which dictionaries I wanted to have no matter what. This is the list I made:

• Japanese-Japanese:
  • 広辞苑 第六版
• Japanese-English:
  • 新和英大辞典第五版
• English-English:
  • オックスフォード現代英英辞典（第9版）Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

And then, I saw that some devices had:

• オックスフォード類語辞典（第2版）Oxford Thesaurus of English
• オックスフォード連語辞典 Oxford Collocations Dictionary
• オックスフォードイディオム辞典 Oxford Idioms
• オックスフォード句動詞辞典 Oxford Phrasal Verbs

And I knew I had to have them all!

As I continued my research, I came to the conclusion that the best dictionary was the “professional” model, which is the most comprehensive, I think. Models for high-school students were good candidates too, but they were packed with TOEIC training material and dictionaries about school stuff and had fewer choices regarding the Japanese-Japanese offer.

So, the dictionary I was aiming at was the XD-G200000 (2017 version)… but, you don’t get to see the price on Casio’s website!

Step 3: Amazon Japan

As I am not living in Japan, I thought that the best way to get an electronic dictionary was to order it via Amazon. That’s when I realised that the XD-G20000 was not only very expensive but also not shipped to my country… I thought I had to start from scratch again. That’s when I realised that the “professional” model (XD-Y20000) of the previous year (2016) was available on Amazon and could be shipped via Amazon Global. Other good news: it was 100 dollars cheaper than this year’s model.

I checked for 2016’s model on the Casio website and could see almost no difference between the two models (last year’s and this year’s). I also read almost all the comments posted on both dictionaries on Amazon. As they were all written in Japanese, I took it as a good opportunity to train my reading skills. It appeared that some criticism concerning the 2017’s model was motivated by the fact that only minor changes were added and that it didn’t differ much from last year product (apparently, some people do buy a new electronic dictionary every year…).

I found a very negative review concerning last year’s product, and it scared me a little. But reading the comment in details allowed me to exclude it as irrelevant to me.

Note: I don’t know how Amazon works but I have just checked out the page, and my dictionary is now 48,000 yen but I bought it for 35,000 yen some months ago… Maybe you should frequently check out the prices as they may vary depending on the seller.

About the device

No lower screen to write kanji?

What really made me think twice before buying the 2016’s product is that it had no lower screen to write kanji. In fact, Casio has removed entirely this feature from all its recent models. This means that if I wanted to have a lower screen I had to buy an older model. I considered it for some time, but I couldn’t find a dictionary that would suit me and could be shipped overseas.

I knew that one could write kanji directly on the upper screen in the recent models, but I was worried it might not be as functional as the lower screen.

However, if Casio had suppressed this feature altogether, it might be as well to trust the maker.

Now that I have been using my newly acquired dictionary for some time, I can say that the disappearance of the lower screen is nothing to worry about. Here are some reasons why:

1. You can write the kanji on the upper screen in every dictionary with Japanese entries. You can even write kanji on the “home” page, which will do a cross search through all dictionaries.
2. It recognises the kanji I write almost all the time, and I am using the Chinese stroke order, not the Japanese one. They are slightly different, but most of the time, the dictionary still recognise the kanji (you do have to trace it stroke by stroke, though, don’t try your calligraphic skills).
3. There are two “boxes” so you can start writing your second kanji in the second box while the dictionary is computing the first one. Then, you can use the first box again, which emptied itself while you were using the second box, to write a third kanji if needed. When you finish, just click some kind of “okay” button. If you realise that, for example, your dictionary got the first kanji wrong, but you have already written your entire word of 3 or 4 kanji, you don’t need to erase the whole word! Just select the wrong kanji with your pen and your dictionary will present you similar kanji from which you can choose. No matter if it is the first, second, last kanji of the word. This is a fantastic feature that allows the user to save time and avoid frustration.
4. I was afraid that one may have to select the writing panel every time one wants to write with the pen. It would have been a minus compared to the lower screen that was always available. But here again, a wonderful feature: the dictionary remembers that you used the panel and will automatically propose it whenever you return to the dictionary. Turning off the machine won’t erase that memory.
5. The panel to write the kanji is big enough, it takes half of the screen. This is a good point compared to the lower screen which is smaller.

Conclusion: I would say that the lower screen looks more comfortable because it is more stable. But writing on the upper screen is not as uncomfortable as one might think, and the bigger panel makes up for the lack of stability. Personally, I don’t mind writing kanji on the upper screen, and the various features listed above makes it even easier to use.

Other cool features that I am using

There are a lot of features in this dictionary, but the ones I am really using are:

Start typing your research while still in a word’s “card”

When you make a search, you are presented with a list of results. If you want to get a closer look at a word, you can select one result and enter this word’s “card”. Now, if you want to search for another word, you don’t need to go back to the “search” screen, just type your new word while still in the word’s definition card, the search will begin automatically.

Cross-search

Instead of selecting one dictionary, just enter your word on the “home” page. It will give you the result for all the dictionaries installed on your device.

I am using it to slowly get used to consulting a Japanese-Japanese dictionary. If I were using my phone, I would never do it. The reason is simple: I know that there is a big probability that I would not understand the definition in Japanese. With my phone, it would mean making two different types of research in two different apps.

Having an electronic dictionary solves the problem. If you cross-search a word, first look at the definition in Japanese and, in case you don’t understand it, scroll until you find an English definition.

In fact, you don’t even need to scroll until you find an English translation. When cross-searching, the first results will be the main Japanese-Japanese dictionaries. Then, you can use the shortcut button at the top of the keyboard to directly go to the Kenkyusha New Japanese-English dictionary. You don’t need to enter the word again. It also works in the other direction. If you choose to look up a word in a dictionary and then think that you would have liked cross-search results, just press the “home” button without re-entering your word. As long as your word figures in the “search” bar, you can look it up in all the dictionaries that have a shortcut button. It is extremely easy and quick to switch between Japanese-Japanese to English-Japanese dictionaries!

Jump function

When reading a word definition, if there is a word you don’t understand, you can easily jump to this word’s definition with the “jump” function. Of course, you can return very easily to your first word.

This function is useful when trying to read a Japanese definition, but if English is not your mother tongue, you will find it even more useful. When I look up a Japanese word that I don’t know in a Japanese-English dictionary and that I realise that I don’t know the English words given in the English definition… it really ruins my day, I can tell you.

You can choose a “priority” dictionary for the jump function (one for Japanese words, one for English). I chose the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary because I mainly use the jump function to look up English words. As long as you don’t change the battery, the dictionary will remember what is the dictionary you want to use for the jump function.

Words deck

You can take notes, save words in a deck, attach post-it and do memorising cards. The only feature that I frequently use is the possibility to save words in a deck. When I read a novel and see an interesting word worth remembering, I won’t stop my reading to enter the word in my Anki deck. I only save it for later in the deck provided by my dictionary and check it once a week to add these words to my Anki repertoire.

Easy search

From the menu, I can access an “easy search” area where I can enter up to 3 Japanese words to find example sentences in English. This is mainly aimed at Japanese who want to know how to express things in English by searching through the example sentences of their dictionary. But I found a very useful way of using this feature, which is when I am looking up idiomatic expressions. For example, if I want to know the meaning of 心が広い, I would have to decide whether I search for 心 or 広い and then, scroll through the whole definition (which is quite long for words like 心) to find the expression. By using the “easy search”, I enter both 心 and 広い, and I will get all the example sentences in Japanese and English that contain both words.

Other little things that I like

You can personalise the home page with 5 favourite dictionaries. I put there the whole Oxford family because I use them often.

When the dictionary turns off, it doesn’t lose any memory or history. When I turn it on, it automatically starts where I stopped. Even if I was in the middle of a “jump” activity, I can go back to the previous word. It’s more like a “sleeping mode”. It may be a detail, but it makes using the dictionary very much pleasant.

Among the shortcut buttons on top of the keyboard figure the Kenkyusha’s Japanese-English dictionary, which is the dictionary I use the most. I am glad they put it in the shortcuts! Another button devoted to English can be personalised. I configured it with the fantastic Oxford Thesaurus.

As the dictionary aims at Japanese learning English, there is a fantastic feature concerning pronunciation: whenever you are in a definition in English, you can press the “voice” button and select any word or combination of words that will be read out loud. I am aware that this feature does not interest English native speaker, but for people like me (to whom English pronunciation is the most esoteric thing in the world) it can be very helpful!

Bonus

Having an electronic dictionary allowed me to definitively expelled my phone out of my desk. Before, I had to keep my phone, because it was my dictionary. I used the “traditional Chinese handwriting input” of my iPhone to look up kanji words on the internet (why they have handwriting input for Chinese and not for Japanese, I don’t know). Then, you certainly know what happens. You reach for your phone to look up a word and realise you got this notification… without knowing how it happened, 20 minutes have disappeared and the time you had to study is almost over.

When I want to read a challenging novel that requires efforts, I know that my mind would be more than willing to escape this strain if my phone solicits me, so it’s best not to have it around!

About the dictionaries

新和英大辞典第五版

I am massively using the 新和英大辞典第五版 which is one of the best Japanese-English dictionaries according to many.

Online dictionaries and apps are so popular, easy to use and often free that I forgot the undeniable superiority of a dictionary edited by a renown publisher. Now that I am using the Kyudansha dictionary, I really can tell the difference, and I am still baffled, every time I use it, by its quality.

The definition is very thorough, the dictionary gives English equivalent words for every situation in which the word can be used. With a less comprehensive dictionary, you may have only two or three equivalent English words, when in fact, the Japanese word you are looking up can have more meanings depending on the situation in which it is used.

Another thing that is worth noting is the presence of Japanese definition among the English one to clarify the context in which the word can be used. For example, the word 見込む’s first meaning will be:

予想する expect, anticipate, calculate; 算出する estimate; 勘定に入れる allow for (damage) (…); 当てにする rely on…

This is just an extract of the definition, but it shows you how Japanese words are included in the English definition. I guess it helps Japanese to understand in which context the word can be used, but to us Japanese learners, it is a way to start reading Japanese definition.

Last but not least, the example sentences are very useful. They are not just random sentences that contain the word you are looking up and that are picked up from the web, they show in which situation and context the word is mainly used. I often come across the same kind of sentences in my dictionary and my JLPT books.

Using Japanese-Japanese dictionaries

I really felt the need to use Japanese-Japanese dictionaries when I started reading challenging books like 『舟を編む』 or 『金閣寺』(I have given up this last one!). These are the kind of books that contain words unknown from an English-Japanese dictionary. Moreover, an English-Japanese dictionary will usually show the kanji that is or are used nowadays. But if you read a novel that was written 50 years before, the kanji used at the time may be different. This is the case for Yukio Mishima’s novel. Thankfully, the Japanese-Japanese dictionaries always give all the kanji that can be used for a given word.

English dictionaries

If English is not your mother tongue, you will certainly make the most of these dictionaries. I have the Oxford series which contains a dictionary for collocations, one for idioms and one for phrasal verbs. Needless to say that they are extremely useful to any English learner.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is, I think, in most Casio dictionaries. I use it all the time, and I configured it to be the first result when I use the function “jump” in an English definition.

But most of all, I love the Oxford Thesaurus. I would certainly not need it if I weren’t writing my blog in English. To anyone who is writing in English (even English native speaker), the Thesaurus can really become your best friend. The Thesaurus provides you with an impressive list of synonyms for any word. Here again, you can use the “jump” function to verify the meaning and way of using a word in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

Conclusion

I have been using my electronic dictionary for some time now (I already changed the battery twice) and, emphatically, I want to say that it changed my life 🤩

Something recently struck me about buying devices that can be easily replaced by your phone. I read several times, on different WordPress blogs, that bloggers who take photographs were more than happy to have bought a professional camera. For someone who only takes pictures occasionally, the camera of any smartphone is more than enough. I would certainly not feel the need to buy an extra camera when my phone can take such gorgeous pictures. But I definitively understand why some people do, if they are serious about photography, if it is their hobby or their work, if they want or need more functionalities and more influence of the results they get…

Buying an electronic dictionary is similar to buying a camera. Apps and internet dictionaries are more than enough for casual use, but if learning Japanese is your passion and if you read a lot of novels in Japanese, buying an electronic dictionary is not superfluous, in my opinion.

Thank you for reading!