Detailed C-E Dictionaries

[mikelove]

My two previous postings here about dictionary recommendations have both worked out very well (we've now licensed one dictionary from each of them, in fact) so I thought I'd try one more time with another dictionary issue.

As those of you using PlecoDict know, we currently offer two Chinese-to-English dictionaries, the Oxford Concise and the ABC Comprehensive. Each of them has many strong points, but one thing they're both lacking in is detail; the ABC has lots of entries, but because it tries to cram 200,000 of them into a single volume it's short on example sentences and tends to use very abbreviated definitions. So you really don't get an in-depth description of what a particular word means.

So one more thing we're looking to add to our product line is a Chinese-English dictionary with longer / more detailed definitions. Ideally this would still have a good number of entries (80,000-100,000 or more) but would average maybe 2-3x as many words per definition as the ABC. The goal isn't really to replace the ABC (though we'd certainly consider raising it to an equal level, say offering a checkbox option in our online store where you can pick which of the two big C-E dictionaries you want with your Professional-bundle purchase) but rather to offer an alternative for people who prefer detail to brevity.

Any suggestions would be welcome, but a couple of titles in particular we're looking at:

* New Age Chinese-English Dictionary, Commercial Press: easily the hardest of these to license (just getting an e-mail response from CP can be an exercise in frustration), but it's big, detailed, and most online reviews of it seem to be extremely positive.

* A Chinese-English Dictionary, Second Edition, Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press: hasn't been updated since 1995, but per FLTRP's website a new version appears to be in development, and it's still of the best-respected C-E dictionaries out there.

* New Century Chinese-English Dictionary, also by FLTRP: definitions seem to be even longer / more detailed than the other two, though I've heard a few complaints about missing words / accuracy. Very big and very recent, though, which are both definite pluses.

Thoughts / reviews on any of these? Any other detailed C-E titles people are fond of?

Michael Love

Pleco Software

[xianu]

On another dictionary thread I raved about the Times New Chinese English Dictionary by Federal Publications in Singapore, and I will do so again. I can't find it anymore, except used on-line for exhorbitant proces, and even that has fallen through, but I thought their explanations and examples were excellent.

I would also vote for the Far-East dictionary.

[venture160]

BTW: One thing that could be handy to add would be aC>E E>C 俗话/成语 dictionary! There is a great, and HUGE dictionary that is very recent and published by 清华

This is slightly off topic, but what is the timeframe for 2.0 now? Are you looking at a Symbian version with the renwed popularity of this OS? how about an iPhone?

Thanks!

[Zamenhof]

* New Age Chinese-English Dictionary

* A Chinese-English Dictionary

* New Century Chinese-English Dictionary

Thoughts / reviews on any of these?

I'm sorry to say that I don't know the first two dictionaries, but I'm a huge fan of New Century Chinese-English. This dictionary has never let me down. It contains even the most obscure words that I have encountered, and the explanations are clear and detailed. The mere thought of being able to carry that dictionary with me on my Pocket PC is absolutely mesmerizing!

Could you elaborate on the criticism you've heard about this dictionary?

[mikelove]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

xianu - unfortunately, after numerous attempts to contact Far East it's pretty clear they're not interested in talking to us, but we'll definitely take a look at this Times dictionary you mention.

venture160 - yeah, a Chengyu dictionary is definitely on our to-do list too, we're just having some difficulty settling on a specific title. Any thoughts on the "Learner's Dictionary of Chinese Idioms" (汉语成语学习词典)? Seems to be getting promoted heavily lately.

I've forsworn saying anything whatsoever in public about release dates for 2.0, since every prediction I make seems to be wrong, but it really shouldn't be too many more months now before the beta's ready - I've been playing with the new flashcard system in a development build and it's worlds ahead of anything we've done before. (screenshots should be up on our website soon) A Symbian version is something we'll consider after the Palm / PPC / desktop Windows versions are out, but an iPhone version will be very difficult unless / until Apple decides to officially support third-party iPhone development.

Zamenhof - the main criticism I've heard of the New Century dictionary is that its word coverage tends to be a bit inconsistent. Nearly all Chinese dictionaries suffer from this sort of problem, really, there'll be unusually detailed coverage of one particular area (New Century for example spends almost half a page on words beginning with 激光 "laser", totaling 4x as many entries as in the ABC, and for some reason our recently-licensed 21st Century English-Chinese dictionary has a separate entry for every single Pope) and strange omissions in other ones, so it may just be that New Century is an easy target for criticism because it's so enormously popular in China right now (apparently even Hu Jintao's a fan, see this article).

So how does it compare to other dictionaries you've used? Any areas you do find it at all lacking?

[Lugubert]

I'm not familiar with the alternatives mentioned, but an addition would be welcome. Using A Chinese-English Dictionary from Foreign Language Teaching and Research press, Wenlin and Pleco sometimes feels like using one and the same dictionary, down to example sentences.

In the meantime, I'll try to check out the books mentioned.

[xiaojiang216]

I'm REALLY looking forward to going to the big library in 王府井 to stock-up on books for study! The last time I was there I bought a nice 成语词典, as well as a book of several 成语 with the stories behind them both in English and Chinese. Anyone learning Chinese in 北京 should definitely take a look!

Is there anything anyone recommends that I check out when I go back?