atarashii/新しい

atarashii (あたらしい、新しい) - new

I got a new dictionary today, along with Barron's pocket grammar and vocabulary books, as well as a book on particles. I'm still getting used to the new dictionary. It's slightly smaller and much more durable than my old dictionary, but I've been using my old dictionary for about nine years now. The pages flip nicely and conform to my hands. The new dictionary still needs to be broken in.

The layout of each entry is a little confusing, too. They use a different color for the main word, but for the Japanese side, they put the kanji or hiragana before the romanized version, so there aren't any clear indentations on the page. (They're there, but you can't see them very well because the indentations are made with the Japanese words in the plain typeface preceeding the headword.) I like that there is a kanji list at the beginning, though, with the government list of about 2000 everyday kanji and their pronounciations.

sameru (さめる、覚める) - open (eyes), wake up
tayoru, tayori ni suru (たよる、頼る；たよりにする、頼りにする) - rely on, depend on
erabu (えらぶ、選ぶ) - choose, pick; erabareta - selected
kimeru (きめる、決める) - decide
tsuyoi (つよい、強い) - strong, forceful
oseji (おせじ、お世辞) - flattery
tachiba (たちば、立場) - position