Bunt Jonathan, Hall Gillian (eds.). Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary

Oxford University Press, 2006. — 480 p.This book is designed to help English-speaking students of all ages who are studying Japanese in schools, colleges, universities, evening classes and in a business context. It is also aimed at people living in Japan.
In the Japanese to English section, we have given a wide range of Japanese words with English equivalents and suggestions as to how to understand and translate them. We have tried to be simple and straightforward and have therefore not included all possible meanings. Our guide for selection was usefulness not only to students but also to those visiting or working in Japan who will encounter a wide range of vocabulary, including culturally specific items needing explanation rather than just a translation.
In the English to Japanese section, the English words are followed by either translations or a suggested method of conveying English uses in Japanese. This section is mostly aimed at those studying the language formally. Such people often have to write short essays and diaries or make short presentations as part of their course and need to supplement their textbooks with other sources of Japanese. We have not tried to give all possible ways of expressing the English and our guideline for inclusion or exclusion was whether it seemed likely that students could use the word or expression in the contexts in which we as teachers at school and university think that they are likely to need it. This will not produce perfect solutions to the problem of moving between two very different languages but it is better to tiy something and then find out why it is not right in a particular case than to not try at all. We expect that qualified teachers will be seeing and responding to most of the material generated from our explanations. This interaction of learner and teacher will fine-tune the use of the information in this dictionary.