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Pop-up dictionary: when and how? | ||
Tags: Dictionaries | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| nystagmatic Triglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4308 days ago 47 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: German | Message 1 of 16 16 July 2014 at 4:34pm | IP Logged |
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I know this is no exact science, but do you guys have any opinions on when and how to use pop-up dictionaries (rather than going by the context to infer the meaning of the word or of the entire phrase)? I'm asking specifically about pop-up dictionaries because they're so easy to use and don't break the reading flow as violently as print dictionaries do - which means the temptation to use them is much higher.
So should we pop it up every time we find a word we cannot accurately define? Or only with known unknowns and when the phrase otherwise refuses to make sense? Can compulsive use of pop-up dictionaries actually be deleterious rather than helpful? Where do you draw the line? What will you teach your kids? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5765 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 16 16 July 2014 at 7:49pm | IP Logged |
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Switch between different modes. For some texts, accurate comprehension is important, and then I use a comprehensive dictionary and take notes/review the words whenever I am not sure about what exactly they mean in a context. Sometimes enjoying the flow of reading is more important and then I'd say to only look up words that are the key to understanding an entire paragraph. Whether to use a pop up dictionary or a more comprehensive one depends on preference. And sometimes taking in a lot of information quickly is most important, and then pop up dictionaries are the best.
I don't save vocabulary from my pop up dictionaries. Well, that is, I save some words but ... every couple of months I notice the list, realize I never reviewed it, look at the entries and think: why on earth did I think that I would want to remember these obscure words? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5165 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 3 of 16 16 July 2014 at 8:49pm | IP Logged |
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Always =D
Seriously, using a pop-up dictionary has made all the difference for my Chinese. Ever since I started using Pera-pera I see an improvement and a reinforcement of what I have been learning through other sources (HSK 4's list, podcasts, textbooks). What you are asking has to do with reading intensively or extensively. I tend to read more pages extensively and fewer ones intensively, the latter usually being somehow graded (either they belong to a textbook or are aimed at learners somwhow). As an example: I read intensively the texts that come in the Chinese material I study. I analize word-by-word, word order etc. (I don't retain most of it but that's another issue). In the case of Russian, I read with the help of a translation. I don't compare each sentence with its translation but try to get the overall meaning. Then comes Norwegian, at which I'm better, and for this I often allow myself to read more pages intensively, looking up most words. That is when a op-up dictionary would come in handy, but I haven't found any. So, I can't really answer the question 'how'? I only have web pop-up dictionaries for Chinese, and for mobile I would use the iBooks one for French, English, German and Chinese, but it doesn't work in my old device so I actually don't use it. I'd be glad to find a pop-up dictionary for German, that would save me a lot of time and allow me to discard the translation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4667 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 4 of 16 16 July 2014 at 10:10pm | IP Logged |
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I like using a pop-up dictionary for English, the
one called Megadict. Today I learned a new word too:flustered. Edited by Medulin on 16 July 2014 at 10:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 5 of 16 16 July 2014 at 10:13pm | IP Logged |
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I usually have my Internet on and and look up even with common English words I'd check to make sure
I'm using it appropriately as a noun or a verb. I don't have a popup dictionary but will do a Google search of words & phrases. Some of the time, definitions will come up, word history / word origin. For French I can get explanations on difference between common phrases such as: "bonsoir", "bonne soirée" & "bonne nuit". For Chinese, there are hundreds of 4-character proverbs to lookup. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 16 16 July 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged |
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Almost never. I have nothing against them, but they don't have a place in my learning somehow. Well, I'd maybe use them on my e-reader if it wasn't for certain technical issues. But generally I look up words rarely enough that I don't mind pasting them or typing manually.
TBH I suppose that's a small downside to learning many languages at the same time. I can't be bothered to look for a dictionary that can identify the language or offer me translations to/from all my languages but nothing that I'm not learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5016 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 16 17 July 2014 at 12:33am | IP Logged |
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Why to limit yourself to one or two dictionaries working in pop-up when you can have many others and 1000 of examples with a web search ?
I prefer to read dictionaries in new firefox tabs or my own lists of words in gnumeric. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 16 17 July 2014 at 5:19am | IP Logged |
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This.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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