Bigger, more modern dictionary

[Don McCormick]

Hello all

I would like to be able to purchase a bigger dictionary with more American English and more contemporary English.
Also, I would like to be able to purchase Technical, Medical or Legal dictionaries.
I am an American living in China. I use the dictionary input as English to Chinese but my Chinese friends will appreciate the reverse input.

I hope these kind of dictionaries will be available in the future.

Regards

Don McCormick

 

[mikelove]

We're working on getting some more English-to-Chinese dictionaries, but it's difficult - there are very few large ones out there that are designed around English speakers (rather than Chinese speakers). There are rumors of an ABC English-to-Chinese dictionary in development, and we'd certainly like to license that once it's ready; in the meantime we've been making inquiries but a lot of publishers but haven't had much luck yet.

We are working on an indexed full-text search system for the ABC Chinese-to-English dictionary, though it's doubtful that this will make it into PlecoDict 1.0 - when it is ready, though, it should significantly expand the number of English-to-Chinese translations available, especially for obscure nouns like "aluminum" or "Bodhisattva."

And as far as techncial/medical/legal dictionaries, the big problem with a lot of those is that they were originally published long ago and hence there aren't any computerized data files available; there's no way we can afford to digitize an old dictionary ourselves, so this effectively prevents us from licensing any dictionaries more than a few years old. Now there are some relatively new technical/medical/legal dictionaries out there, but again, there aren't very many of them and we're having a hard time securing licenses.

Our ultimate objective is to be able to offer just about any Chinese-to-English or English-to-Chinese dictionary you might want on any PDA or smartphone platform, but we're still a few years away from that point...

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Hello Mike,

I too am hoping for a larger English to Chinese dictionary, as well as a Chinese grammar guide.

I mostly use PlecoDict to look up unknown characters/words in Chinese, but this is only because the English to Chinese databases are not up to par with the Chinese to English ones. I understand that you are doing your best to secure as many digital dictionary licenses as you can, so I thought I would go ahead and put in my recommendation, knowing well in advance that you have probably already tried your best to get it.

I particularly like the Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary – Chinese. While it may not have as many words as some of the larger dictionaries out there, it’s English to Chinese section is full of phrases that I have yet to see in many of the other English to Chinese dictionaries. Like you previously, I am currently studying at Beida, and before finding your PlecoDict software, searched bookstores and the internet tirelessly trying to find a useful dictionary for learners of the Chinese language, instead of the other way around. The Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary - Chinese, despite its size, was the best book I found for this. In addition to having pinyin for both the headwords and the example sentences used, it has several examples sentences for almost every headword, making it quick and easy to pinpoint the desired usage of a word. In fact, the Langenscheidt is so useful that prior to buying your software my classmates were constantly asking me where to find one in China. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find them in China, but I have not yet given up hope of seeing it in PlecoDict one day.

As for Chinese grammar guides, one of the books I am very happy about comes from the Tuttle Language Library series, Beginner’s Chinese Dictionary. While this dictionary is very simple, is has clear explanations of a lot of commonly used grammar within its pages. I have found these concise explanations to be indispensable to my studies here at Beida.

I hope you will seriously consider these two references.

Thank you for your time, and for your excellent product! I hope it continues to grow, becoming better and better.

Darrol Butler

 

[mikelove]

hairyleprechaun,

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, the prospects for our licensing the Langenscheidt dictionary are doubtful at best - we also worked with them on the Berlitz Phrase Books project, and after the complete fiasco that that turned out to be I imagine it's pretty doubtful they'd be interested in pursuing another licensing arrangement with us.

Any thoughts on the new Harper Collins dictionary? That has a similarly diverse/useful set of English-Chinese words and phrases, and while we haven't approached them about a license yet, it seems like it might be a good choice for us (particularly if they plan to expand it to the size of their unabridged French/German/Spanish/Italian dictionaries). Neither it nor the Langenscheidt support traditional characters, but the NWP didn't originally support them either and we were able to add them fairly easily.

I haven't taken a good look at the Beginner's Chinese Dictionary you mention yet, but I'll pick up a copy the next time I'm in a foreign language bookstore.

 

[lmcjipo]

Any thoughts on the new Harper Collins dictionary? That has a similarly diverse/useful set of English-Chinese words and phrases, and while we haven't approached them about a license yet, it seems like it might be a good choice for us (particularly if they plan to expand it to the size of their unabridged French/German/Spanish/Italian dictionaries).

If you are referring to the Collins Chinese Dictionary Plus (ISBN 0-00-720432-9), I have the paperback version of this dictionary and I don't really like it. This was the first Chinese<->English dictionary that I purchased for my Mandarin level 1 course. I purchased it because it was on special at a discount bookstore. After purchasing it, I found that it seemed to be missing a lot of words when I compared it with the dictionary that my classmates were using (which my Mandarin professor recommended). He recommended one of the Oxford dictionaries.

After finding the Collins Chinese Dictionary Plus to be lacking and being slightly jealous of the Oxford dictionay that my classmates were using, I bought my other only "non-software-based" Chinese<->English dictionary (Oxford Chinese Dictionary - ISBN 0-19-596459-4).

Since purchasing the complete version of PlecoDict, I haven't really used either of these 2 Chinese<->English dictionaries. :wink:

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for the feedback on that. There seem to be a lot of conflicting opinions about this title, actually... The first edition of any dictionary is going to have its share of omissions and mistakes, but I do think that there are some promising features that might make a 2nd or 3rd edition of the dictionary an attractive option for us.

 

[lmcjipo]

Hi Mike,

I just checked the Collins Chinese Dictionary Plus (ISBN 0-00-720432-9) that I have and it is the first edition. However, the year that it was printed is 2005 (which is only about 1 year ago).

I'm not sure how much of an improvement they could have done in such a short time but as I mentioned, I find my version of their dictionary to be lacking. This didn't impede me in my Mandarin level 1 class (I didn't encounter any words that were covered in my class that I couldn't find in ther dictionary) but I felt that it would be better if I bought the dictionary that most of the other students were using in my class (which was also the dictionary that the teacher recommended).

Since a lot of teachers recommend books that they wrote, I just thought that I would mention that the teacher that I had for my Mandarin level 1 class wasn't affiliated with the Oxford dictionary that he recommended (he didn't contribute to it, write it, or have anything to do with the publishing of it) so I believe that his recommendation/preference was an honest one.

 

[mikelove]

The version I have is also a first edition, I was referring to the likelihood of an improved edition coming out a few years from now - at the moment I agree that it's probably not the best choice for us. Aside from specialty dictionaries, the main type of Chinese-English dictionary I can see us licensing is something with more or better grammatical explanations and example sentences - something like Wang Huan's "Chinese-English Dictionary" (published by Beijing Language & Culture University Press) which is one of my favorite Chinese-English titles that we haven't licensed yet.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for the response. I have not yet looked at the Harper Collins Chinese dictionary. Next time I get a chance I will try to pick it up, assuming it can be found in Beijing. As for the Langenscheit, that is too bad that the fiasco with the Berlitz phrase books may cause liscensing probelms with it. I know quite a few classmates that swear by the Langenscheit Pocket Dictionary - Chinese, and other's are continuously asking me where to find it. Of course, I have been unable to get it in Beijing without having it shipped from overseas.

I look forward to any larger, more easy to understand English to Chinese dictionary you can come up with. And of course, the holy grail would be a grammar guide. :O)

Darrol

 

[SCAndy]

new dictionary

I too have used the langenscheidt dictionary; I have worn the printing of both sides of the cover and had to duck tape the binding back onto it. It has very useful phrases, and is very easy to go from English to Chinese. however it is very lacking going from chinese to english. None the less I would be very grateful if it were added to Pleco’s growing dictionary word base. Any grammar program included in future editions of Plecodict would also be well received.

 

[lmcjipo]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for the response. I have not yet looked at the Harper Collins Chinese dictionary. Next time I get a chance I will try to pick it up, assuming it can be found in Beijing. As for the Langenscheit, that is too bad that the fiasco with the Berlitz phrase books may cause liscensing probelms with it. I know quite a few classmates that swear by the Langenscheit Pocket Dictionary - Chinese, and other's are continuously asking me where to find it. Of course, I have been unable to get it in Beijing without having it shipped from overseas.

I look forward to any larger, more easy to understand English to Chinese dictionary you can come up with. And of course, the holy grail would be a grammar guide. :O)

Darrol

Darrol/hairyleprechaun: I don't recommend that you get the Collins dictionary that I mentioned. The 1st edition is extremely lacking. I bought mine brand new for about $15 CAD at a discount bookstore. Between the 2 non-software based dictionaries that I have, I would definitely recommend the Oxford dictionary that I have over the Collins dictionary that I also have.

However, this is a moot point because since using PlecoDict, both of these dictionaries haven't really moved from my bookshelf.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Darrol/hairyleprechaun: I don't recommend that you get the Collins dictionary that I mentioned. The 1st edition is extremely lacking. I bought mine brand new for about $15 CAD at a discount bookstore. Between the 2 non-software based dictionaries that I have, I would definitely recommend the Oxford dictionary that I have over the Collins dictionary that I also have.

Hello lmcjipo/Jim, Thank you for your information and for the suggestion. Could I ask you a question? Do you have any suggestions for a good grammar guide/book that clearly explains, with example sentences, commonly used Chinese grammar?

Based on my studies it seems that the Chinese use many sentence patterns, but unfortunately many of these do not show up in either my paper dictionaries or my PlecoDict dictionaries. Additionally, in my Chinese text books, the grammar is only explained in Chinese, which means that I don't always understand how to use the grammar/sentence patterns as cleary as I would like to.

Thank you for your time.

Darrol

 

[lmcjipo]

Hello lmcjipo/Jim, Thank you for your information and for the suggestion. Could I ask you a question? Do you have any suggestions for a good grammar guide/book that clearly explains, with example sentences, commonly used Chinese grammar?

Based on my studies it seems that the Chinese use many sentence patterns, but unfortunately many of these do not show up in either my paper dictionaries or my PlecoDict dictionaries. Additionally, in my Chinese text books, the grammar is only explained in Chinese, which means that I don't always understand how to use the grammar/sentence patterns as cleary as I would like to.

Thank you for your time.

Darrol

I just noticed that I incorrectly spelled your name. I corrected it but then you quoted my text so it is incorrect in your posting as well. Sorry about that.

Unfortunately, I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to Mandarin Chinese (and Chinese in general) so I don't really know of any good Chinese grammar books.

In my Mandarin level 1 class, we used "Integrated Chinese - Level 1 Part 1" textbook with the simplified character book as well as the work book. For every lesson/chapter, it basically covered <5 grammar topics related to the text/dialogue from that particular lesson/chapter. I found the grammar explanations to be good but very basic.

For the Mandarin level 2 class, we used "Integrated Chinese - Level 1 Part 2" textbook with the simplified character book and the work book. The grammar was basically covered in the exact same manner as what was covered in the previous book.

I bought 2 Mandarin learning books on my own when I was taking my first level Mandarin course. One is called "Chinese for Dummies" (ISBN: 047178897X) and the other one is called "Ultimate Chinese (Mandarin) Beginner-Intermediate" (ISBN: 1400021022).

I didn't really like "Chinese for Dummies" for a few reasons. The main reason is that I purchased the first edition and I noticed quite a few mistakes in it (and I'm still a beginner). I'm not sure if the second edition of this book still has the same mistakes that I noted. This book basically covers pronounciation/grammar and pinyin. It doesn't cover Chinese characters at all. I bought this book online and didn't have a chance to browse through it at a local bookstore.

I find "Ultimate Chinese" to be very good. I saw it at the bookstore and browsed through it before ordering it online. However, it might be too basic for you. As I mentioned, I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to Mandarin/Chinese.

I haven't had a chance to go into depth with both "Chinese for Dummies" and "Ultimate Chinese" because of work/life as well as my Mandarin studies (which because our homework/exams/quizzes/dictations covers the Integrated Chinese textbooks/workbooks/characterbooks, I've concentrated on these books).

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Thank you for correcting the misspelling on my name as well as pointing out that I incorporated the same mistake in the quote. I appreciate your consideration.

I too have not had much time to look at many Chinese grammar books designed for foreigners learning the Chinese language, so I really appreciate your suggestions. I will see if I can pick up a copy of the "Ultimate Chinese (Mandarin) Beginner-Intermediate" here in Beijing, and then browse through it before deciding to purchase it.

Additionally I will make a point to stop by some more book stores here in Beijing to see if I can turn up a Chinese grammar book with clear English explanations.

Does anyone else have any favorite or recommended Chinese grammar books?

Thank you,

Darrol

 

[The Duelist]

A Practical Chinese Grammar

I Purchased A Practical Chinese Grammar (ISBN: 962 201 595 6) from this Recomendation.
viewtopic.php?t=327

I find it to have Excellent Explanations & Examples in Hanzi/Pinyin/English

Hope This Helps
The Duelist

 

[johnh113]

useful ordinary words

Dear Mike,

A dictionary that I like and use frequently (and that my babies love) is the Longman English-Chinese Photo Dictionary from Pearson Education North Asia Limited.

Every page is devoted to a different topic like farm or port or games or bathroom or construction or tools or food. There are pictures, and English and Chinese names for everything.

We don't need the pictures in Pleco, but the words, organized by these topics, would make for fabulous browsing and/or flashcards.

By the way, I agree with something you wrote a couple of years ago, that having a searchable index for all the English words in the ABC will substantially reduce the need for another English-Chinese dictionary.

John

 

[mikelove]

johnh113 - that's an interesting suggestion, Longman have already rejected a couple of licensing requests from us but there are several other companies that make picture-based Chinese dictionaries and chances are at least one of them would find this idea promising. We'd want to organize this hierarchically like our old phrasebooks product instead of as a dictionary, but done that way it could be a very interesting tool. So thanks very much for that idea.

And indexed full-text search of the ABC is already working beautifully in our development builds of 2.0 (only adds about 1.5 MB to the data file, too, and we've already cut that much out of the old file by optimizing in some other areas) so you can expect to see that in the first 2.0 preview release.

 

[adamlau]

Is this the new and upcoming, yet-to-be-published ABC? I recall talking to Tom Bishop of Wenlin (who is working on the ABC) recently and he said the new version was residing in his computer, yet to be published (and likely to be revealed in Wenlin 4.0)...

 

[mikelove]

We're still working with the same old ABC database at the moment, though we certainly are following progress on the new one with great interest (and plan to make it available in PlecoDict as soon as we get our hands on it). The full-text search feature is independent of the particular ABC version, they use a very consistent / easy-to-work-with file format so once we get the new data from them we should be able to drop the new file into our indexer without any additional work.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Hello Mike,

I recently read one of your posts somewhere in the forums (can't remember where) that mentioned something about work on some new dictionary licenses. Can you give us any details of some of the new dictionaries you are trying to license?

Also, further up the page in this forum there was talk about trying to license and then hierarchically index a picture dictionary. Have you made any progress on picture dictionaries? I have a couple that I really enjoy, not just for the different method of being able to browse through words/ideas/concepts, but also because they tend to have translations for words often that don't show up in other dictionaries. And, as a side note, the pictures are pretty much multilingual which would be great for your French, German, and other clients, whose native language isn't English. Too bad you haven't had any luck licensing the Longman Chinese English Visual Dictionary of Chinese Culture; it is one of my favorites. The New Oxford Picture Dictionary (English-Chinese) isn't nearly as comprehensive, but I like it as well.

And, one more question. Earlier in this post you said that you were watching the development of the new ABC dictionary, and would try to get your hands on it once it becomes available. Any news on that front yet?

Darrol