[词典考据] 研究社 英和活用大辞典版本考[20221227]

卡布奇诺sh
5.0 out of 5 stars He is gone, but his work lives on
Reviewed in Japan ???????? on February 20, 2022
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This is the world's largest bilingual English collocation dictionary containing more than 380,000 pieces of English collocative phrases and their illustrative sentences (each phrase and sentence has a Japanese translation), complied by a group of top-rank Japanese English scholars in cooperation with some English and American language experts. After its publication, it has been widely acclaimed by English teachers and students from all walks of life in Japan (elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, universities and research institutes), and has been continuously reprinted and been in print ever since.

This dictionary contains a total of more than 380,000 English collocations, including collocations of verbs with prepositions, of verbs with adverbs, of prepositions with nouns, of adjectives with nouns, and so on.

Mr. Wang Wenchang (deceased), a retired professor of English at Soochow University in China, also complied a similar dictionary of English collocations, and in the process of its compilation Mr. Wang and his team had repeatedly consulted this renowned English collocations dictionary of Japan, because the dictionary contains the most collocations of its kind.

This collocation dictionary was introduced to China in 2006 by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (affiliated with Beijing Foreign Studies University), the largest and most professional publisher of foreign language and literature books in China, but, of course, only the English contents were retained, and the Japanese translations were removed. Since its publication, the dictionary has been well received by Chinese English teachers and students, and has become an indispensable mentor for them in their English studies. Some of them, who have insisted on keeping a diary in English for many years, consult the reprinted edition of this dictionary every day. It is fantastic!

I bought the Chinese reprinted edition of this dictionary ten years ago and have been flipping through its pages almost every week. Last year, I was so excited when I found out that a newly-edited edition of the dictionary had been published by Kenkyusha that I ordered a copy from Amazon Japan without hesitation after Christmas. When I received the package two weeks later, I couldn't wait to open and look through the dictionary. I found the paper used in the dictionary, the technique with which the dictionary was bound to be first-class, and the printing of the text of the dictionary also to be very clear, reflecting truly the rigorous and meticulous work spirit of the Japanese people.

In addition, by reading the preface of the dictionary, I learned that Professor Shigeharu Ichikawa, the editor-in-chief of the dictionary, had passed away in 1991. I was very sad to learn of this bad news. Japan has lost a great scholar of English. This is a heavy loss not only for Japan, but also for the East Asian English teaching community.

Since the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese people, especially the elite, have been emphasizing the need to study the West and to “leave Asia and enter Europe”. I think that by learning English, the strongest and most dominant language in the Western world now, is the best and most obvious way to fulfill the vow to "leave Asia and enter Europe”.

In the process of learning English (or other foreign languages), especially when you have reached the advanced level (e.g., when you have got a high score of IELTS 8 or have passed Goethe Institute language exam C1), I think you should learn to learn a foreign language by using the foreign language (namely, explaining some phrases and sentences difficult to understand by using different (simpler) words, by paraphrasing them) and try to get rid of the negative influence of your mother tongue on your foreign language learning (This phenomenon is called "negative transfer" in linguistics).
If you have been already an advanced Japanese foreign language learner, please stop using Japanese translation to learn foreign languages. This is a very bad study habit that you must try to overcome.

Let's work hard, Japanese, Chinese, and all foreign language learners in East Asia. May we all, through our own perseverance (ceaseless hard work), concentration and good use of various learning strategies, enter the "Free Kingdom" of the English language as early as possible.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the memory of Professor Shigeharu Ichikawa with this review.

Long live Professor Shigeharu Ichikawa!