Electronic Dictionaries

[roddy]

I'm fed up with my paper dictionary and want to get an electronic one. It'll need to be something available in Beijing, that I can write characters onto, and that can give me the pinyin. Any recommendations?

Roddy

[JoH]

Well, whatever you do, don't buy one of those really cheap ones... Particularly, don't buy a 'wenquxing' pc 260 plus, which I bought last time I was in Beijing! It's quite entertaining, as lots of the English translations are pure fantasy, but not much good for actually learning anything.

If you have a bit of cash to spend, I'd recommend a palm handheld. I've got one with the Oxford C-E dictionary downloaded on it plus a chinese operating system and a handwriting recognition thing which lets you write characters on the screen. I've also got a flashcard programme which lets you set up flashcard databases on your pc and download them. With the chinese input thing you can write notes in Chinese and store chinese addresses too. I love it and I use it every day. It saves loads of time over paper dictionaries.

JoH

[roddy]

I"ve had a look at the Palm Pilots and the software available, and it looks like I'm due another gadget (obviously carrying around a laptop, mobile phone and digital camera isn't enough, I now need one of these too . . .)

What PDA do you have? I've found the Palm Zire at 888Y on the internet here, which is affordable.

[JoH]

Unfortunately the zire only has 2mb of memory, and that isn't going to be enough. 8 mb is probably the minimum. I've got the m515 which has 16mb and I've managed to fill most of it quite easily. The oxford dictionary takes up 5mb (but then I did download the traditional fonts aswell, and haven't used them). The chinese handwriting recognition only takes up 1mb. The palm tungsten has the same memory but also has a voice recording facility which looks like it would be pretty useful.

[PollyWaffle]

i think i ahve palm pilot c<->e software somewhere... dictionaries, voice recognition, etc. they aren't really big files either... i dont know what they're like as i cant afford a tiny computer yet

Edit: they finally honoured the warrenty so i'll remove the slander trail

[Guest fon]

JoH, please post a list of what you have installed.

Can you give me links to the software?

Any tricks getting it all installed?

I'm thinking of buying the new Treo 600 palm/mobile when it comes out, if my finances stretch to it, hopefully I can run this software on it. Writing characters on the palm sounds like the killer app!

[JoH]

I got the CJKOS operating system and the character writing thing (HWPen) from palmgear or somewhere like that I think.

The oxford dictionary is from http://www.pleco.com/download.html and supermemo is from http://www.mapletop.com/download/

They were all pretty easy to install - I had some problems with installing HWPen but they were helpful about sorting it out. And the support and updates from the oxford dictionary people have been good too.

[ChouDoufu]

I am looking for an electronic dictionary, but not necessarily a palm pilot. I don't really need to have a character input, pinyin, radical, and wubi (I'd have to learn it, but that might be cool) lookup would be what I'm looking for. I'd want something that has a really really nice dictionary with a good amount of technical terms and enough colloquial terms so that I could find the cool words chinese people teach me. Isaw a really nice one, but it was Japanese/Chinese.

just out of curiousity, what is the concensus on the best pda to buy for a chinese dictionary and what is the cost of that oxford c-e, oxford e-c?

thanks.

[JoH]

The oxford dictionary for the palm costs $50

Jo

[akdn]

I just bought one of these from a Parkson dept store:

http://www.besta.com.cn/product/v8000.asp

I've only used it for a few days, but it's proved to be worthwhile. It's quite expensive (1580 kuai), and large (about 4.5 x 2.5 inches closed), but it has all the functions you need.

The dictionary section alone makes it a good purchase. :

1) English - Chinese

2) Chinese - English

3) Chinese - Chinese

4) 'Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary, 4th ed' on a memory card (that came free).

You can write characters directly onto the screen, or type pinyin. Then there's a wealth of info for each entry - example sentences, idioms, usages, compound words that begin with the imputted character, etc.

When you're reading the dictionary entries you can use the pen to highlight any character on the screen, and find the English translation, or the meaning in Chinese.

One cool thing - it lets you save whatever you look up, and you can test yourself later.

As well as the dictionaries there are all the usual personal organizer functions, and a language testing section (lots of vocab and gap-fill exercises). And lots more I still haven't discovered, I'm sure.

[pazu]

So far I haven't found any good dictionaries for Chinese learners on Palm, though you can have a very good one for English learners who speak Chinese.

The best dictionary for you should be Besta, and agree with Akdn, you'd better buy a model which lets you input handwriting, they also usually have bigger fonts.

[ChouDoufu]

I just bought one of these from a Parkson dept store:

The dictionary section alone makes it a good purchase. :

1) English - Chinese

2) Chinese - English

3) Chinese - Chinese

4) 'Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary' date=' 4th ed' on a memory card (that came free).

[/quote']

How good is the Chinese-Chinese dictionary? I've been spending some time trying to switch over to a Chinese dictionary and would like to have something smaller than my rather big 现代汉语词典。 Anyone here puchased straight Chinese electronic dictionaries?

[nnt]

I am looking for an electronic dictionary' date=' but not necessarily a palm pilot. I don't really need to have a character input, pinyin, radical, and wubi (I'd have to learn it, but that might be cool) lookup would be what I'm looking for. I'd want something that has a really really nice dictionary with a good amount of technical terms and enough colloquial terms so that I could find the cool words chinese people teach me. Isaw a really nice one, but it was Japanese/Chinese.

thanks.[/quote']

Have you tried 金山词霸 2003 ?

[pazu]

金山詞霸 is very useful.

[Guest james0531]

I've also got a flashcard programme which lets you set up flashcard databases on your pc and download them.

JoH, can you tell me what program you are using? I am still looking for a good flashcard program. I've got both Wenlin and Clavis Sinica, but they each have their drawbacks.

[Guest nafusica]

I'm fed up with my paper dictionary and want to get an electronic one. It'll need to be something available in Beijing' date=' that I can write characters onto, and that can give me the pinyin. Any recommendations?

Roddy[/quote']

Try this link, these are the main manufacturers in Taiwan.

http://www.besta.com.tw

http://www.gv.com.tw

http://www.instant.com.tw

[doumeizhen]

I just baught one for 700 rm. You can't imput pinyin, butyou can write characters and type english. It's the L66 model.

The shop is right by landau on chao yang wai da jie bai nao hui 4,4022 shi,

It on the top floor of the mall, far corner

their number is 65995414

You can write characters in the hanzi section, and it will tell you the pinyin.

and then you can look up multiple character words under chinese-english. (in that section pinyin is not provided)

[sunyata]

Damn, I wanna get the 牛津8000 too ! Hope I have enough money when I get to China...

By the way, speaking of Chinese dictionaraies...does anyone have a Pocket PC (like ipaq) with a chinese dictionary installed?

I was reading a bit on other forums and it seems liek there is some nice chinese input and recogniction software for pocket pcs, like:

http://www.mactiontech.com/english/index.htm

http://www.teamonesoft.com/en/index_1.htm

Do you think it's better to get a Palm-type handheld or an ipaq-type pocket PC?

[benotnobody]

Is there any way of buying an electronic chinese-english dictionary in australia? (other than eBay. Bad memories...)

[Jack MacKelly]

I heard Australians can get the ECS430T, LOGOS and the ECTACO Handheld dictionaries...but there may be much better ones on the market than the ones I've just mentioned