First Japanese-Albanian dictionary launched

TIRANA, July 23 – Reko Dida, the wife of the Albanian ambassador to Japan, has compiled the first Japanese-Albanian dictionary in her country, a concise work containing 13,000 words, Japan’s Daily Yomiuri reports.
Dida, 47, first came to Japan in 1996 with her husbandشhen a researcher who came to study at Tohoku University in Sendai. She started studying the Japanese language, even though there was no Japanese-Albanian dictionary in her country as it had adopted a closed-door policy during the Cold War era.
“I could only use a Japanese-English dictionary,” Dida said. Since then, she has laboriously recorded Japanese words and their Albanian translations in her notebooks.
“There are traditional festivals, spas and tenderhearted people in Sendai. Our stay in the city made me fall in love with Japan,” she said.
After living in Sendai for three years, she returned to Albania and became a Japanese language teacher.
In 2009, her husband was appointed ambassador to Japan. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Dida visited the quake-hit area. She could not stop herself from shedding tears when she saw the destruction.
She started working on the dictionary as reports of the quake spread around the world.
“I thought I had to complete the dictionary for people interested in Japan,” Dida said.
She received help from linguists in Albania and Japan, as well as her son, Besar, 21, who studies at a university in Tokyo. In addition, the Japan Foundation offered financial support for the project.
A total of 500 copies were printed in Albania in April. She said she would like to present them to universities and other institutions there. “I hope the bonds between our two countries can be strengthened,” Dida said.