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Software dictionary or good old book? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4948 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 1 of 10 08 September 2013 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I want to get a hand on Petit Robert and Duden Explanatory. I finally feel confident enough to transition to only French-French / German-German, as I now find myself more than half the time (maybe 3/4), just reading Wiktionary entries in the target language.
I love words and etymology so I think I would trully enjoy the software from both, I just wonder if anyone here has opinions on them before I make a decision. Or even if just the hard copies are good enough (call me romantic but using a book dictionary is one of the pleasures of language learning too!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 10 08 September 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Software dictionaries have many benefits, but you have no guarantee that they will run on new operating systems
and hardware in the future. A paper dictionary will still be useable 100 years from now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4470 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 3 of 10 09 September 2013 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
I don't see why the hard copy would not be good enough. It certainly was good enough for millions of people before software were developed. If you enjoy them, go for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 10 09 September 2013 at 11:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I love dictionaries, and used have used the Oxford 2-volume English dictionary a lot when I was writing.
For German I have: 1. Langenscheidt's Großwörterbuch: Deutsch als Fremdsprache monolingunal dictionary (paperback). 2. The Oxford German-English Dictionary (hardback). 3. Collins German dictionary (on the Kindle). 4. Duden German dictionary (comes for free with Kindle). I love the layout of the mononligual dictionary, and the Oxford is very nice, but I hardly ever use either. For reading the Kindle is all I need, it certainly doesn't have all the words, but neither do all the other's, and it has the advantage that it's always there. I suspect the Duden will be very useful at some point, but not until I am at least C1. Edited by patrickwilken on 09 September 2013 at 11:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 10 09 September 2013 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Handheld electronic dictionaries are certainly worth a look -- you get multiple bilingual and unilingual dictionaries in an easy to carry format. They also allow for searches and cross-referencing that paper dictionaries don't allow, and you can still flip through them randomly if you want to.
Some will say that it's cheaper to put a few apps on your iPod/iPhone (or other smartphone), but I still think the dedicated devices do an excellent job. This summer, I almost bought a Casio model for German (I have one for Japanese, which I just adore), and instead went for a cheaper Pons app, but I still think I would have enjoyed that handheld device and used it all the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 10 09 September 2013 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depends on what do you want to use the dictionary for.
Want to find the info fast? Get the digital one. There are even good monolingual ones, or thesauri etc. Some are even for free. Want to let the word lead you to another that is conveniently just bellow (or on the page you accidentally opened your book at)? Get the paper. You will get the digital one "for free" when you buy the paper one (I noticed a Larousse doing that) by the way. Want to carry the dictionary anywhere you go? Get a digital one for any kind of gadget you take with you (smartphone, laptop, tablet). Want to try the three dictionaries technique or do you want to widen yur vocabulary based on a dictionary? Get a huge, comprehensive beast printed on paper. I use both digital and paper dictionaries and I like them both. Depends on my mood. 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 7 of 10 09 September 2013 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Paper dictionaries are great to learn new words (from) just by reading the dictionary.
75% of paper dictionaries nowadays include a CD for people to use it on their pC. Android/iphone dictionaries are nice, but not necessarily cheaper. For Chinese/Japanese, phone dictionaries are great since it can be a pain to look up words in ZH-EN or JA-EN directions. Edited by Medulin on 09 September 2013 at 9:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 8 of 10 09 September 2013 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | ||
Surely you aren't implying that electronic dictionaries, what with all their linking and cross-referencing features, somehow impede adventurous browsing? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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