Dictionary Reviews

For me, a big part of any language book's usefulness is based not only on content, but portability and durability as well - I'm always on the go, and I've had more than one book fall apart in my bag, and very often two or more weigh it down and take up way too much space on a crowded train. That said, this book ROCKS! Okay, so it - like all other books of Japanese idioms - is not always up to date, and you will need to try these on a friend to see if they're still in vogue or old enough to sound awkward... but the volume is there, with many hundreds of idioms, categorized by usage situation as well as romnji alphebetization. There is a whole lot of information in this book, and used properly will go far toward giving you a more natural turn of phrase in casual conversation. But here's what puts the package over the top - it's tiny, and it comes in a plastic slipcase! You can put this book in your pocket! It's a bit bigger than a deck of cards, and the plastic means you can drop it, kick it, throw it in a shopping bag and it'll be none the worse for wear. Also, the spine does not crease easily, which is another thoughtful touch. If you need it to be portable, this is truly the best study guide available.

Getting bogged down with grammar? Then this books for you. A great way to add some fun to your japanese study, this book presents japanese idioms clearly and precisely. The idioms are easy to look up and written both in kanji and romanji, complete with examples of usage in everyday conversation. Relevant for beginner to advanced level students.

I first came accross this book while struggling with the Japanese language in Japan. It was great to read a such a fresh view of how both Americans and Japanese treat the language. The book is getting old, and Seward admits there are more fluent foreign speakers running around the island, but the humor and insights are still dead on in 2000.

Anyone who plans to visit or live in Japan would benefit from reading the anecdotes, but this book is especially for those who are really thinking about devoting time to the country and especially the language. I have read many books of this genre, and this is toward the top.

Be sure to check out Jay Rubin's helpful and hilarious "What the textbooks don't teach you" as well.

This was the first book on the Japanese language that I enjoyed thoroughly. Mr. Seward discusses the difficulties that the student will encounter, and divides them into Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced. This gives the aspiring linguist an informative and often hilarious view of what can be expected in the course of serious study of Japanese. Drinking, romance, fractured English, Seward's Sham...it's all here. I hear H.M. the Emperor gave Mr. Seward the Order of the Chysanthemum 3rd Class(a rare honor for a non-Japanese). After reading this book, I felt they should have made it 1st Class.

Before using this book it was difficult to remember kanjis because I did not know which ones were worth to learn. All of them had the same weight to me. From the first day I started to learn the kanjis in this book, I was surprised by the way I was able to recognize the characters in the Japanese newspapers. Although not updated recently, the words in this book were ordered by frequency and you will find that after learning the first ten, you will see them everywhere in newspapers, magazines or in TV news headlines. This motivates you to continue learning more and more with confidence.

I read a bad review of this book and had to counter. Serious about reading Japanese? Get this book if you can find it. Shame on Tuttle for letting it go out of print. The only valid excuse could be they are resetting it with Chinese readings as well. Now THAT would be a REALLY great book.

I bought about 3 books about Japanese and 2 computer programs, and let me tell you, this one was definately the best I ever bought. It has vocabulary in every chapter, simple to intermediate sentence structures, & 9 out of every 10 words learned are shown in Kanji/Kana forms. Animé fans who want to learn: get this!

This book,in my opinion, is really good to have if you know some japanese to guide you.They explain it really well and have conversational practices and answers in here. they include alot of vocabulary, and some kanji for it, but not alot. This book is really detailed to make you understand Japanese the easy way. You won't be able to put it down!

Kenneth and Sheryl Dawson have put together a very worthwhile book for those seeking employment. I agree with much of what they say, and I appreciate the emphasis on organization. Well done.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "The Accelerated Job Search" docwifford@msn.com

This is a no-nonsense, common sense approach to job hunting. There is no room for senseless babble here. The Total System, is a professional, uncomplicated and realistic bible for the "soon to be employed." It doesn't matter whether you are a top-ranked CEO, or an entry-level, college student, this book will basically hand you your next job.

Let me put it this way: this book helped me to land my first job out of college, successfully win a regional director's position within 2 years of employment with the same company and then launch my own consulting business. Whenever I hear my clients ask me about what to use as a refrence for their own job search or what to look for when hiring, this is the only book that I would sincerely recommend. (I even loaned my brother my personal copy for his own job search.)

These e-books make a lot of sense financially. You can get exactly what you want at a fair price. I am a fan of Joe Gores and his crime fiction - especially the DKA series. Peter Kenney's essay about Gores is a pleasure to read.

"Joe Gores" is a biographical essay taken from AMERICAN HARD-BOILED CRIME WRITERS which is one of the volumes of the award-winning Dictionary of Literary Biography series. There is more interesting information about Joe Gores and his career in this commentary by Peter Kenney than in any other single source known to me. I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in Joe Gores and his development as a writer.

This is one of the best books ever on African American language. And yes, it is a language. The French experiemntal writer Raymond Federman challenged me to write a piece that would be densely and mentally impregnable to anyone but African Americans as American and English Colonies can be to other races. It succeeded on many levels. One, it was a fantastic story and two, it got me to use this book as source for finding new words/terms and as a reference to checking what I already knew.
Thsi book is invaluable to the scholar of language. I spent the last 2 years patiently hunting for this book as it is out of publication. I actually bought it at twice the cover price because it is that good. There is no higher that I can recommend this book. As the tapestry of language is art, this would be one of Picasso's treasured brushes.

This book is by far the funniest book I've ever peered into. It gives comprehensive definitions, origins, time-periods, and in-context sentences of 99% of African American derived slang.

Educational. Entertaining.

It is explicit language but it is not at all gratuitous. 5 HUGE stars.

I bought Mr Keirstead's practice pad when I first arrived in Tokyo. Having no prior knowledge of Japanese, it took me about 3 weeks to master all of the Kana. After that, I quickly discovered that I could walk into any Western style restaurant in Tokyo, and understand 80 to 95% of the menu. His practice pad gave me the confidence I needed to get around in Japan. I am now studying his Kanji-A-Day practice pad. Thank you Mr Keirstead for your excellent idea.

My school doesn't offer any Japanese classes, so I have been trying to find the best resources for self-education to prepare myself for when I have the opportunity to be in a classroom. This pad shows stroke order and has plenty of space for practicing both the Hiragana and Katakana symbols. By keeping the used pages on my cork board and drawing the symbols, I have retained memory of each of the symbols I have learned so far! This pad was a really great idea!

Our school library has this book, and it's been the most helpful book that I've found for learning Kanji.

This book shows the history and picture behind the Kanji. I was able to read the book and look at the pictures and learn the Kanji by remembering the explanation of what it is of. A fantastic tool for learning

From A to Z, here is a dictionary on Kant's philosophy which, surprisingly enough, is quite helpful. For someone who is trying to gain a better understanding of Kant's philosophy this text is an invaluable tool to have handy. It is easy to use (since it is an A to Z topical dictionary) and contains a few extra features such as an Introduction on Kant and the Language of Philosophy, an article on Kant and the 'Age of Criticism,' a very handy chronology of Kant's published writings, a section called "Works Referred to in the Text" which sites all the works used to put this dictionary together, a recommended reading list (quite nice feature), and an index of philosophers and philosophical concepts.

Thus, for a text dealing with Kant, the reader gets not only great information on Kant's philosophy, but on his actual works, his concepts, his time period, and information on those philosophers who preceded and followed him.

What is more, a student can use this text to branch out into deeper study on Kant's philosophy due to the recommended reading, but also by way of the text itself. What I mean is, the entries include cross references, text abbreviations where the information (or concept) can be found in Kant's work, and the German origin of the entry/word/concept itself.

Overall, this is a very nice edition to anyone's philosophical library. Moreover, it is one of the better reference works I have seen or used in my research of Immanuel Kant. I highly recommend this text.

This book would be very useful to you if you are taking an undergraduate course in Kantian philosophy. If you're having trouble remembering what Kant means when he uses the words "transcendentalism" and "ethics" and "pure reason" and stuff like that, this book will be a good resource. And the definitions aren't just a few words, many are more than a page. The only warning I would place on this book is that many of the definitions provided are interpretive of the philosophy rather than just descriptive. So that could cause a problem if you have a professor who is fully persuaded in his own interpretation. But overall this is a good and helpful book to have to quickly reacquaint yourself with most of Kant's main philosophical ideas and terms.