New editions of Kodansha Kanji Dictionaries for 2011

[celticflower]

Hello

A lot of people have recommended the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary and I've been thinking of buying one, so I asked the company if they were bringing a new edition out this year.


Here's the info if anyone is interested:

Yes, we are planning to publish new editions for the Kanji Learner's Dictionary as follows:


*The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictioinary: Revised and Expanded
*US$45.00 (t) Ready in August 2011 in Japan (t)

*Ready 4 months later overseas


*The New kodansha Kanji Dictionary
*US$79.95 (t) Ready in February 2012 in Japan (t)

*Ready 4 months later overseas

> KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL LTD. Marketing Department


Still worth the investment?

Thanks

Talk to you later,

Clare

[micahcowan]

If it were me, I'd probably just buy a used copy. I can't imagine the update is so life-changing that it's worth the extra cost to pay extra for it, if you can get a slightly older version (new or used) cheaper. Amazon has the 2002 one, new, for $23, and I'm quite happy for that.

Honestly, I don't use mine so much... it's greatest strength IMO is its superior method for looking up characters. However, I have a Nintendo DS with 漢字そのまま, which lets me look up characters simply by writing them. Hard to beat that for ease-of-lookup, so I find less use for Halpern. I'm still glad I have a copy for just-in-case, though.

Other strengths include a wealth of compounds (though, understandably, a dearth of usage examples for those compounds, so you'll really want to find them in a good dictionary for better familiarity with them), and handy lists such as the list of the top 1000 most-frequently used kanji (by how frequent they appear in asahi shin'bun, which in my experience does not necessarily match well with most-frequent usage for other sources, such as web, software/hardware documentation, or novels—a lot more emphasis on vocabulary that relates to government, economy, politics, and sports—none of which I tend to spend much time reading about in other sources, really).

[celticflower]

Hello

I didn't realise anyone had replied to this post, thank you Micah!

I was thinking that I'd get it for Christmas, (it is a lot of money), so I may as well wait for the new 'improved' edition, but like you I'm not sure how much use I'd get out of it.
It's hard to judge when you're still very much a beginner, but there've been updates to kanji usage since the last edition, haven't there?

I guess I'll have to see what I feel like after it comes out, read some reviews and wait until the New Year to decide.

I feel like I'm stockpiling Japanese learning resources while I can afford them