First let me explain the images. You're reading something and you see this word, 待遇. You don't know the word so you look it up and you get the first image. Here you have 2 problems:
- It's not a definition of a word, just different translations of the term. And there are 2 groups of them and the relation between them is not explained. You just know they mean something different in another context, without being given said context.
- You've seen lots and lots of words that are defined with the first or the second meaning, so you don`t know how to differentiate this word from the others.
From here either you understand (or think you understand) from associating all the translations of the words or associating them with the context that you're reading. Or you're dumb like me and still couldn't make heads or tails of what this word means. In the second case we look a native dictionary (second image), which the output roughly translates to:
The treatment/handling of people
- The treatment of customers
「―が悪い」
- The treatment of workers conditions, salaries and etc. in the workplace
「―改善」
I could have gotten this from the english meanings? Maybe. But also having a simple definition like "The treatment/handling of people" made what to me was just completely different meanings having a common starting point that's just shifted a bit in the context.
And over these 3 years learning the language, I kept dreaming that some day someone will have the genius idea of making a dictionary JP-EN dictionary that actually has this explanation of what the word means instead of just showing a number of translations of it.
Not being a native english speaker, learning a language which the online resources for learning are available pretty much only in english, I'm left to fend for myself and understand the nuance of the word meanings just from this random list of translations and link all of the different contexts it displays, instead of just being explained what it means at its core which would allow me to easily make that link in the first place.
As a result you get disasters like me at the start struggling to understand whats the difference between x and y when they are completely different words, but are somehow translated to the same in some bilingual dictionaries (eg. 都合 and 勝手 being translated to "one's convenience").
Nowadays I can read monolingual dictionaries, which will explain the meanings of the words, and it's what I can't grasp it from english, but they can still get overwhelming with the language level, so I still can't use them on main...
And it frustrates me, because translating things in your head is something you don't want to do when you're speaking a language, and I feel a proper dictionary would help people overcome that barrier more easily, helping a learner grasp the concept of the word instead of just associating equivalents that often aren't 1:1 matches.
Dealing with english has pretty much been my biggest gripe with learning japanese from the start, since my Wanikani days. I really hope that landscape can change, both in the sense presented in this post and having more resources in other languages as well. Learning japanese on its own is already pain and it's worse when you have to do it through a second language.