Ro's Recz

When trying to learn a language, one of the most important things to try and find when starting out is a good online dictionary. Although I am not fluent in Chinese nor Japanese, I have tried or am trying to learn them, and two of the most helpful websites I have found are MDBG and Jisho.

Jisho means dictionary in Japanese, and Jisho.org is the website that I use. I found Jisho.com better than Google Translate because it has a much more thorough explanation for words and characters. Also, rather than just giving one translation, it gives multiple possible translations for each search query. It also does a good job of recognizing both English and Japanese, although you have to be precise when typing in Japanese (using English characters).

MDBG is the online Chinese dictionary that we used at my high school, and I thought it was the best tool to use when studying Chinese. MDBG is really useful because it has a ton of functionality. You can input in pinyin, characters, English, etc., and the results are both accurate and wide-ranging. It also does a good job of switching between individual characters and entire sentences.

Languages, especially Asian ones, are very tough to learn, and having the right tools can be a big boost at any stage of learning. If you have been searching for Japanese and Chinese online dictionaries, definitely check out Jisho and MDBG!