Tools for learning Japanese.

[calm]

A long long time ago,
I can still remember learning French in college.

As a part of the class I bought the Textbook, a workbook, a French-English dictionary, a book of 500 French verbs. Aside from the class I went to a language lab where I could listen to French lessons or record them on a tape recorder and listen later.

Due to my present interest in go, an involvement in the martial arts in my youth as well as other aspects of Japanese culture, I wish to learn Japanese. So I've acquired the Genki book, and Rosetta Stone. I setup IME on my computers. I dove into Rosetta Stone and stopped at lesson two. Lesson one I basically got the vocabulary, but there seemed some ambiguity. I could go on, but I decided I wanted to be clear on what concepts the words represented. So I went to babelfish and did some translations. For example, one of the first verbs とんで , which seemed to mean "jumping" from the pictures I saw, but which babelfish translated as "flying".

So I've stopped until I get a Japanese-English dictionary. I would rather get a software version, but I don't want an online dictionary because much of the time I am studying offline ( on my laptop ) especially now with Summer coming.

So can someone recommend a good oiffline dictionary? Before I start up studying again, what other tools or books should I get? ( I don't want to keep stopping and starting up again, because if I do, eventually there will come a time when I will stop and not start up again. )

Thanks
calm

 

[Soloistic]

Personally I don't like Rosetta Stone but everyone has their own preference. Genki is a great book and it will get you started on your journey. After you get a good chunk through, I would suggest taking a look at the following site. Read through and try out the method it suggests.
AJATT | All Japanese All The Time | You don't know a language, you live it. You don't learn a language, you get used to it.

 

[wiste]

So can someone recommend a good oiffline dictionary?

Try a websearch "japanese-english dictionary download"
Freelang has a dictionary that you can type in the Romaji and get the translation.

 

[Putrefaction]

tobu is indeed fly, but it can probably be jump too. There are a bunch of homonyms.
Tobu's -te form is tonde.

Do yourself a favor (I am a low-level intelligence person so don't take offense, but if it works for dummies then it should work for smarter people) finish Genki Vol 1. I'm up to lesson 7 and when i did Rosetta Stone lesson 1 part 1 I was astounded at how advanced RS makes their lesson one, but I could understand a lot of it!

 

[calm]

Try a websearch "japanese-english dictionary download"
Freelang has a dictionary that you can type in the Romaji and get the translation.

Thank you. I did google "japanese english dictionary" but did not include download ( one thing that would have done is eliminate some commercial offerings ).

 

[calm]

tobu is indeed fly, but it can probably be jump too. There are a bunch of homonyms.
Tobu's -te form is tonde.

I remember trying to look up "suis" in a French-English dictionary without luck.
I didn't know that it was the singular male present tense of etre.

One thing that was of help was a book of French verbs and their different tenses. But it was only a little help. you would have to know enough to be able to find etre in the book. Software is better.

Is there some software that will allow you to type in a verb and get the canonical tense?

If there isn't. Then is there a text file with basic verbs in all their tenses?
( Given that I could write the software. )

 

[isuzu_bathory]

www.livemocha.com
Nihongo-PT

 

[Putrefaction]

Just to add, I wikipedia'ed Jump in Joyo Kanji:

踊 jump ヨウyō おど-る、おど-りodo-ru, odo-ri

 

[Toritoribe]

Just to add, I wikipedia'ed Jump in Joyo Kanji:

踊 jump ヨウyō おど-る、おど-りodo-ru, odo-ri

Indeed, the kanji 踊 originally means "to jump," but "odoru," "odori" as Japanese means "to dance," "dance(noun)" respectively.
Sorry for nitpicking.;-)

 

[pengu]

Ive downloaded a j-e/e-j dictionary called "wakan" and im happy with it.
google search "wakan" and its the first link.

 

[japanesewords]

If you are considering electronic options (which are good because they are easy to use) then there are two that work pretty well. One is the Nintendo ds Japanese dictionary. The other is a free program called "kotoba" for the itouch or iphone. These are both great options because they allow you to input kanji by hand which is a very useful feature.

 

[kyubisharingan]

if you have an ipod touch, you could download "Kotoba", a japanese to english/ english to japanese dictionary. Its free plus VERY useful (lol i know, becuase i have it. I also have alot of other japanese learning applications on my touch). Or just go to a bookstore and buy one. I have a RandomHouse dictionary for japanese for about $7

 

[japanesewords]

Yes, Kotoba is a good dictionary program for the itouch. And you can't complain about the price.... unless you don't have an itouch.