Do you know the famous site jisho.org? If you study Japanese, you should understand that the word jisho (辞書) literally means dictionary. The jisho site is one of the most interesting tools for Japanese students. In this article, we will help you translate and learn Japanese using jisho.org;
With jisho, you are able to understand the meaning of Japanese ideograms, words, names, and even example sentences. The site provides detailed readings, meanings, and strokes of a kanji. It is also possible to draw a kanji or choose radicals to find something you don’t know how to write on the keyboard.
The big problem and obstacle for people is that the site is in English. However, it has translations in Spanish and even English for a large number of words. Despite the English language, you can easily use Google Translate without worrying about incorrect translations; in this article, I will explain why.
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Using Jisho to translate and learn Japanese
Using jisho is simple; just access the site and type the text you want to translate or find details. It can be in Japanese with kanji, romaji, or even in English; the site will recognize the word and present a list of options. To help you learn Japanese using jisho, I made a quick video below:
In addition to the video, let’s see some examples of how you can use jisho to translate, learn, and study a simple sentence or song lyrics. Below we have the following sentence:
- 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない
The first thing you should do is select the first kanji (俺) if you do not know its meaning. By entering it into jisho, you will see the meaning of the word and details of the kanji next to it. If you click on the kanji, you will access a page with all the details of that Japanese ideogram.
If you have at least a little knowledge of English, you will know that this ideogram means I (I, me), but if you use Google Translate, you will see that the site says this word sounds rough or arrogant. Next, we see the particle の, so just ignore it for now.
Now you can translate the other kanji (妹) which means younger sister. You will see the reading of the word at the top of the kanji, written in hiragana. Be careful when using the translator on pages with very large words, because it may end up mixing up the hiraganas of the kanji and making the word incorrect.
Doing this with all the words and ignoring the particles, we will have the following words:
- 俺 – I, my;
- 妹 – younger sister;
- こんな – such, like this, in this way
- 可愛い – cute, adorable, charming;
- わけがない – there is no way that (expresses that something is impossible);
These are the meanings that jisho presented to us, even using Google Translate. Don’t forget to check the pronunciation of the furigana in the words with kanji to know how to pronounce or write in romaji. Now let’s do as I do when writing articles or breaking down songs, I put the sentence in romanization:
-
俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない
- Ore no imouto ga konnani kawaii wakeganai
First, we have the particle no (の) which indicates possession. So basically we are talking about my sister. If we look for konna(ni) without the particle ni (に), you will find the expression “like this.” Followed by the word cute and adorable and ending with there is no way or impossible.
Everything that came before the particle が is the subject we are talking about, my sister. Start reading the sentence from the back to translate better into Portuguese. There is no way / cute adorable / like this. Now we must include my sister in the sentence, which translates to:
- There is no way (my sister) can be this cute.
How will jisho help you learn Japanese?
You will need to interpret the context of the sentence to arrive at a more logical meaning and a perfect translation. It doesn’t matter if you are using Google Translate to put the words from jisho into Portuguese. The site provides various meanings for the same word, and the translation from English is much more accurate.
Furthermore, you will be translating word by word, and only then will you transform the sentence and translate the song correctly. We recommend also putting the word or kanji in Japanese into Google Translate to see more meanings and senses of the word. Japanese is a language full of idiomatic expressions, making literal and quick translations impossible.
Translating and studying sentences carefully and in detail will help you memorize the words and expressions of the Japanese language in a natural and fun way. Taking a song and translating it sentence by sentence will yield much more results than filling in gap exercises or reading giant texts.
By translating words using jisho, you get to know several alternatives for the same word, as well as other words with different meanings that use the same ideogram. Just with jisho and content in Japanese, your studies can go beyond any workbook or teacher.
Of course, using jisho will require practice and dedication; you should not abandon traditional memorization methods. Using jisho can be a fast yet slow way to learn Japanese. The goal is to have it in your hands to meet all your needs when learning nihongo.
Want to further expand your Japanese learning? Read our article that explains how to learn Japanese by producing content (clicking here).
Other utilities of Jisho
Jisho goes far beyond translating sentences or seeing the meaning of words and kanji. It is a completely comprehensive dictionary that will help you in learning Japanese, no matter what level you are at. Below we will list some possibilities you have when using jisho.
- Assistance and reading of texts and words;
- Information on verbal inflection;
- Search for multiple words mixing English and Japanese;
- Add tags to filter searches;
- View the reading of names of a kanji;
- Know the JLPT level of a word or kanji;
- Search for phrases and sentences with a specific word;
Just the fact of using tags allows you to learn anything using jisho. You can see a complete list of jisho tags by accessing this page.
I hope you enjoyed these tips on using jisho to translate and learn Japanese. Did you know about this site? What is your experience with it? We appreciate your comments and shares. We recommend other articles that will help you learn Japanese below:
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