Thai-english/english-thai Electronic Dictionary

[cosmicdancer]

Hi

I am looking for a Thai-English/English-Thai electronic dictionary .

Any advice on it welcom

Thanks for your attention

[Lithobid]

I bought the Besta model cyberdict model 10 advance. It's amazing. THough I don't reccomment you buying one until you've mastered a manual dictionary.

Cheers

Lithobid

[DavidHouston]

Question for those of you who use a cyberdictionary or a talkingdict: I understand that these come with multiple dictionaries, some general Thai-English-Thai and some specialized dictionaries, like various varieties of engineering, medical, and business dictionaries. However, do all the machines feature the same sets of dictionaries or does the purchaser get a different set from each vendor?

Thanks.

[grahamhc]

I bought one several years ago (Cyberdict, I recall) to learn pronunciation of Thai words, but found the spoken mode was only in English with an American accent. I eventually gave it to a Thai to help her friends learn English.

Have they now moved on and give SPOKEN Thai as well, or still only in Amercan English?

[DavidHouston]

From the website http://www.cyberdict.com/pro_besta_cbd11_eng.php and http://www.cyberdict.com/pro_besta_cbd11_03_eng.php you can see that these products are aimed at Thai users who are learning English, Chinese, or Japanese. The reference is to CyberDict 11, the latest version.

For the "Advance Learner 5" (http://www.cyberdict.com/Advance%20Learner5_1_eng.php ), there is a note which says "Voxware Human Voice (100% English Headwords)". That implies to me that the spoken part is still only English, not in Thai.

One alternative to purchasing these fairly expensive machines which can run to $500 - $600 U.S. (see http://www.ethaicd.com/list.php?catid=2368 ), is to purchase one of the "netbooks" which are sold in many Thai computer stores. These mini-notebooks which can run about the same price as the language specific machines, uses Intel's Atom processor, feature 160 GB of hard-disk space, 1gb of ram, run XP or Linux, and are only slightly larger and heavier than the cyberdict. With these machines you can download Lexitron or Thai2English or, if you purchase an external CD/DVD drive, you can purchase any of the CD-based dictionaries and download it to your netbook. The keyboards are almost full-sized (from 93 - 98% of full keyboard) as compared to the miniscule size of the keyboard on the Cyberdict.

I have been looking for them in the Thai stores and models here in Phuket include those by HP (Mini 1000), Toshiba, Dell (Mini), ASUS (Eee PC), and Acer (Aspire One). Sony has a model but its price is stratopheric. These machines, while not fully operational laptops, are a good alternative to the Cyberdict, if properly loaded and outfitted. And, you can download a Open Office suite of programs for free. Note that some of these machines have only an English language keyboard (the Dell, for example). The most popular here in Thailand all have Thai and English keyboards.

I would like to hear from any of you who have purchased a Netbook and have used it for language learning.

Thanks.

Edited January 25, 2009 by DavidHouston

[xerostar]

Have a look at http://www.ectaco.com/Thai-items/

They have talking Thai-English dictionaries that.

They have a 2-way voice translator which promises to give instant translation of spoken phrases.

Price: US$379.95 they offer a 30% discount at present.

[janejira]

I have one of the Talking-Dict electronic dictionaries. I believe it is the Elegant model (the blue one)

The reason that I bought it was because it was cheaper than many of the other models (5000 Baht) and I was only interested in having a Thai-Eng/ Eng-Thai dictionary. It works very well for what I bought it for.

It is possible to download "e-books" off of the website, however these are all in Thai and rather difficult for me to understand at my level of Thai. It is also possible to play MP3s and the radio on it which I take advantage of often.

There are multiple dictionaries on it but I rarely use more than the Thai-Eng, Eng-Thai and Eng-Eng dictionaries. If you go to the manufacturer's website they have everything listed for all of their models. I believe it is talkingdict.com

[Gaccha]

For the benefit of this topic I went and played on the latest Cyberdict (number 11).

The following points:

There is a Thai spoken component. This is incredibly rare among standard electronic dictionaries (as opposed to the useless phrase book electronic books) and should be applauded. It is also substantial. My guess is 35,000 words.

There are 2 standard English dictionaries. The good one is Oxford River Books-- enormous and well-written. It includes lots of sample sentences. The word "revenge" had 4 examples, along with antonyms and synonyms.

It is touch screen. You don't know the word then you can look up the Thai word with a touch of the screen. Very useful and possibly unique.

There are multiple dictionaries such as legal, medical, Japanese-Thai (but not the reverse), Chinese- Thai. I would regard the legal dictionary as poor quality.

The spoken voice is restricted to the "multiple language" dictionary. This has only the word and no explanation, no definition and no example sentences. To get these you must switch between the dictionaries.

The issue is the price tag (about 13,000 bahts). This makes sense if you plan to use the astonishing number of features for learning English but none of these features (e.g. animation spelling games) exist in reverse.

The dictionaries cannot be picked-- they are pre-installed. In an ideal world the Thai-English dictionary would be the "Concise" dictionary by Windows on Languages.

So I still await the entry of the big Japanese players onto the market. Hurry up Canon, Sony!

[Luukhin]

So I still await the entry of the big Japanese players onto the market. Hurry up Canon, Sony!

And Casio! I am waiting for the electronic version of Longman Eiwa Jiten.

[praglen]

I went to a shop in Tuk.com, an electronic center in Pattaya yesterday and saw a black and white(vs. color) Thai-to-English electronic, talking dictionary, for 4,450 baht.

I know of no on-line dictionary(including Thai2English) that includes pronunciation for each word. That tells me buying a netbook cannot solve the pronunciation problem for my Thai girl friend. Am I right?

[DavidHouston]

Perhaps what I am about to recommend is a bit beyond what you want, but the Domnern-Sathienpong "Thai-English Dictionary" comes with a CD-ROM. If you buy a true "netbook" and an auxiliary CD player, you can load the CD-ROM onto the hard-drive of the newbook and you have a much more capable dictionary than most of the hand-held devices on the market. The Domnern Sathienpong dictionary can be searched in Thai and in English and each Thai and English word is pronounced very clearly. This is a great language solution, but the netbooks and the software is a more expensive solution when compared to the hand held devices. BTW, the D-S hardcover dictionary with CD-ROM sells for 570 baht and is available in many Thai bookstores.

Good luck.

[ElZorro]

I know of no on-line dictionary(including Thai2English) that includes pronunciation for each word. That tells me buying a netbook cannot solve the pronunciation problem for my Thai girl friend. Am I right?

The free dictionary has the English and American pronunciations for almost every entry in their English dictionary. If you want a Thai- English dictionary with both English and Thai pronunciation, you could download Lexitron for free or get one of the commercial dictionaries, like ThaiSoftware. The only reason why I would consider buying an electronic dictionary instead of a netbook is because they are even more portable, but netbooks beat them to a pulp in all other respects.

[praglen]

The Internet has stuff you can't believe. Free. You Tube, for example, has a number of pronunciation videos. The link is:

[bhoydy]

Perhaps what I am about to recommend is a bit beyond what you want, but the Domnern-Sathienpong "Thai-English Dictionary" comes with a CD-ROM. If you buy a true "netbook" and an auxiliary CD player, you can load the CD-ROM onto the hard-drive of the newbook and you have a much more capable dictionary than most of the hand-held devices on the market. The Domnern Sathienpong dictionary can be searched in Thai and in English and each Thai and English word is pronounced very clearly. This is a great language solution, but the netbooks and the software is a more expensive solution when compared to the hand held devices. BTW, the D-S hardcover dictionary with CD-ROM sells for 570 baht and is available in many Thai bookstores.

Good luck.

Oh that's a bit of a pain. I didn't see a hardback copy where i bought mine. I bought the paperback and it didn't come with a CD-ROM. Do they sell it seperately by any chance?

[abrise]

I once used a dedicated electronic dictionary a long time ago. Then i switch to pda with a palm equiped with an excellent dictionary. And now for two years i am using a windows mobile telephone htc 3450; now only 10000 baht. I purchased the Merriam webster Unabridged excellent english to english dictionary . .html for 62 dollars. And Thai english dictionary from lingvosoft for 35 dollars only .With a little more money you can have a phrasebook with prononciation in thai. I am using the lingvosoft dictionary almost everyday.

[ElZorro]

There are also a couple of imobile phones that incorporate a talking dictionary. One of those models costs around 4,000 baht and has a TV tuner also.

[Meridian007]

I have the Lingvosoft 2006 dictionary on my phone, (windows mobile), and I find that the interface is a little clunky, and there is only audio for English words. Have they cleaned it up in more recent versions? Have they added audio for the Thai words?

I wish the Becker dictionary was on WM instead of just Palm. If they had that dictionary, with an audio component, I would pay a lot for it!

[Gaccha]

...but the 6 million dollar question: "when are the Japanese companies going to invade the market with their so-good-it-is-unfair-to-compare-them-with-the-current-rubbish-in-Thailand dictionaries?"

The answer is: a long time yet... Nothing on their websites but here are pages to stay informed:

Canon http://www.canon-ebm.com. hk/dictionary.html

Seiko http://www.seikoinstruments.com/

Sharp http://www.sharp.ca/products/index.asp?cat=77

(can someone remove the hyperlinks, the formatting won't let me...)

Strictly speaking, when they do make the products, they will not be invading anywhere since for IP law reasons they won't be sold here, but it'll be worth a trip to Japan, and you can see the cherry blossoms at the same time.

[harrry]

These dictionaries are basically dsigned for people who are learning english and can tefore speak English but often badly.

One of the few thatcan speak thai is combined with a gps as the GPS LEARNER 3 for about 8000 baht. The same company has a few other models now that can speak thai. Check for the 11 Languages dictionary in the product. It is the only onethatgves The thai language pronounced properly. It also has a Thai turorial to which is not too bad though uses rather formal constructions.

[Meridian007]

^ Does it have a software only version? I already have three GPSs, so I don't need the hardware.

I emailed the company that publishes Benjawan Poomsan Becker's dictionary, and they said that they are working on a Windows desktop version, and then possibly some other mobile versions. I take this to mean that a solution from them is quite distant. I like their dictionary, but it is a pain to carry it around, I'd rather have something on my phone. (If I just had their database data, I could make my own solution)

So, does anyone have experience with a more recent version of the Lingvosoft dictionary than the 2006 one that I mentioned above? Is it worth my time to try downloading and installing a time-limited demo that will clutter up my phone? Is it still mainly a tool for learners of English rather than Thai? Is there an audio aspect of the Thai or transliterations? I can read the Thai offered in the 2006 version, but my ability to pronounce words properly by reading them hasn't been perfected yet, so a transliteration as a backup would be nice.

I'll even take a .csv of transliterations if anyone has one, then I can do it myself!

[andymodo]

just a thought - after i'd spent a while looking for a good dictionary, with easy to use keyboard and good dictionaries, and looking at about 10,000Bt outlay, I decided to get an iphone (second hand from a brilliant seller at mbk, 16,000 Bt) and couldn't be happier - the keyboard is really excellent and there are several good dictionaries as well as flash cvards etc that can be downloaded from itunes app store for a couple of dollars each...and the nice thing is that more new applications and dcitionaries seem to be coming along all the time...

[Ratsima]

just a thought - after i'd spent a while looking for a good dictionary, with easy to use keyboard and good dictionaries, and looking at about 10,000Bt outlay, I decided to get an iphone (second hand from a brilliant seller at mbk, 16,000 Bt) and couldn't be happier - the keyboard is really excellent and there are several good dictionaries as well as flash cvards etc that can be downloaded from itunes app store for a couple of dollars each...and the nice thing is that more new applications and dcitionaries seem to be coming along all the time...

How about directing us to some of the apps you've found most useful.

[xerostar]

The Ectaco company have a Testimonials page at:

http://www.ectaco.com/main.jsp?do=company-testimonials

There are no references to the Thai/English versions but a few on the following model.

See: http://www.ectaco.com/ECTACO-iTRAVL-NTL-2Th/

Surely somebody in Thailand has purchased one of these and could write a comprehensive unbiased review for us.

The advertising seems too good to be true, but I'm still very curious.

Is there any device on the market which is better?

Wishful thinking ..

[DavidHouston]

I see that one of the products is "2GB SD Card English-Thai iTRAVL NTL-2Th". I wonder if this product comes with software that allows it to be installed on a laptop computer via the SD card port.

The Ectaco company have a Testimonials page at:

http://www.ectaco.co...ny-testimonials

There are no references to the Thai/English versions but a few on the following model.

See: http://www.ectaco.co...iTRAVL-NTL-2Th/

Surely somebody in Thailand has purchased one of these and could write a comprehensive unbiased review for us.

The advertising seems too good to be true, but I'm still very curious.

Is there any device on the market which is better?

Wishful thinking ..

[kriswillems]

Surely somebody in Thailand has purchased one of these and could write a comprehensive unbiased review for us.

David, I can't give you an unbiased review, but the style of their advertisement makes me think about the companies that sell the free FSI course for a lot of money.

I found a review of one of their devices:

http://www.technotalks.com/reviews/ectaco-itravl/

It's very negative.

The reviews on amazon are also extremely negative:

http://www.amazon.com/Ectaco-NTL-9C-Multilingual-Communicator-Black/dp/B000SO60FC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1287040582&sr=8-1-spell

[DavidHouston]

[That was Xerostar's question, not mine.]

Surely somebody in Thailand has purchased one of these and could write a comprehensive unbiased review for us.

David, I can't give you an unbiased review, but the style of their advertisement makes me think about the companies that sell the free FSI course for a lot of money.

I found a review of one of their devices:

http://www.technotal.../ectaco-itravl/

It's very negative.

The reviews on amazon are also extremely negative:

http://www.amazon.co...82&sr=8-1-spell

[Delight]

In my view Thai for Beginners has its limitations ,however the dictionaries from the same publisher(ie Paiboon Publishing ) are ,again in my view ,the best around.

For about 2 years I have used the electronic version of their English /Transliteration /Thai dictionary initially on a PDA and latterly on a mobile phone

The limitation here is that it only works on the PALM OS .

I think about 12 -18 months ago they brought to the market a speaking dictionary. The voice employed is that of the founder Benjawan Poomsan Becker.Currently it only works on a Windows platform.

It is ,again in my view ,absolutely superb. The transition between the 3 modes of entry ie English -Transliteration -Thai is seamless. The user can choose up to 13 different styles of transliteration.

The Company is working on a I Phone version .

If there is a better dictionary around-and for me it must have a transliteration feature plus a human voice ,then I will be pleased to hear