Can someone explain to me the advantages of using J-J dictionaries, and the disadvantage of using J-E? I read about it quite a lot when I go around looking for study tips, and it is often suggested for intermediate learners moving to the advanced stage.
There are a few reasons.
First, J-E dictionaries tend to only give single-word definitions, or a handful of similar words. The problem is that this only really works well for very simple concepts; concrete nouns (car, cat) and simple verbs (run, sit). When it comes to more complex ideas, there are often a bunch of words that can be used with varying nuances. If I look up 軽はずみ、無謀、命知らず、and 無闇 in a J-E dictionary they all just say various combinations and conjugations of the words "rash, reckless, heedless, thoughtless." If I look them up in a J-J dictionary, the definitions actually define the words. 軽はずみ means acting according to a flight of fancy without thinking about what one is doing. 無謀 means doing something without considering the consequences. 命知らず means acting without regard for the danger surrounding something, and has connotations of naivety and foolishness. 無闇 means doing something for no discernable reason, with no thought to the action's appropriateness in that situation. They're all similar, but they have distinct differences and understanding those helps you appreciate them more, as well as helping to keep them straight in your head.
Another reason, is that J-J dictionaries are guaranteed to have accurate and applicable usage examples. Most of the example sentences in J-E dictionaries were pulled from the Tanaka Corpus, which has well-documented issues with its translations and the sentences tend to be wordy and often quite unnatural.
Finally, consistently using a J-J dictionary will expand your vocabulary. You'll come across new and useful words as synonyms or parts of definitions, and form natural links between related words and concepts. You'll also get a better idea of how Japanese people think about the Japanese language and better learn how to handle definitions given to you, or help you define things when you can't think of the right word and are trying to ask what it is.
That said, there's a definite learning curve, and when you first start you'll come a cross a ton of unfamiliar words all the damn time, which is frustrating. Starting with elementary school dictionaries can help with that.
This also doesn't become immensely useful until your vocabulary is starting to branch out beyond "survival Japanese," which is most of what you learn until intermediate studies (past N4, working towards N3). Until that point there's not nearly as much benefit because you're dealing almost exclusively with simple words that don't require a more nuanced understanding. Even then, though, you can have some things that seem a little bit odd, such as きれい meaning both "beautiful" and "clean", or
the distinction between somewhat similar words such as 問題 and 質問, but those tend to be explained by the textbook on a case-to-case basis.
, and it doesn't parse verb conjugations for jumps (neither does my 電子辞書, maybe yours does? Which one do you use?). It does, however, let you quickly copy the words on highlight if you swipe and hold for a second, rather than just swipe and release, so you can quickly copy the kanji or words into the search field to change the conjugation and such. Which, again, is a bit more convenient than mucking around with the 電子辞書, at least for me.
