Paiboon Thai-English, English-Thai Talking Dictionary

[Pib]

For you folks who have Paiboon's Thai-English English-Thai Talking Dictionary software installed, they just released Version 1.2 which increases the number of words in the dictionary from 44, 000 to over 100,000. As you know the updated version is free since you bought Ver 1.0 and assuming your have your original Purchase Code to accomplish the download and install. The download is 275MB in size...I'm downloading mine right now.

[Rikker]

The iPhone version of their dictionary was also released in the last few weeks. It also incorporates this larger word set, if I understand correctly what I was told by Chris Pirazzi (co-author and software developer of the dictionary).

As it happens, I had dinner with Benjawan and her husband on Monday. She said Paiboon plans to continue expanding the size of the dictionary, and possibly release expanded print editions, if it is economical.

[Disclosure: Paiboon has provided me with free review copies of each version of the dictionary, but I am not otherwise affiliated.]

[klons]

There is no downloadable version for a mac user, correct?

[Tod Daniels]

Surprisingly I won this program in a contest from the "Women Learning Thai (and some men too)" website a while back. Thanx for the heads up about the up graded version, I just downloaded it.

Believe me I do not give out praise lightly, but this is one slick program! The choices you have to display what ever way you can read phonetics is outstanding, as is the clarity in the audio for the words. I use both it and thai-language dot com many, many times a day

They really put some time into this and my hats off to Benjawan on this endeavor. Really top notch!

Oh, and to answer the poster known as klons, I just looked at Paiboon Publishings website and it would appear that it is NOT a mac dealy at this time. Then again not being the most computer literate person I could be wrong, so heres the link;

Paiboon Publishing

Edited January 12, 2011 by tod-daniels

[LRimmler]

I just downloaded and installed the Paiboon Thai-English, English-Thai Talking Dictionary on my iPhone (it's available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch).

The authors Benjawan Poomsan Becker and Chris Pirazzi really did a nice job with the interface and the features are very rich indeed. By the way, there is also a PC version available. They are also coming out with a comprehensive Thai Phrasebook with basic and advanced phrases in many categories. An Android version is also plan.

The dictionary has many useful features not found anywhere else. You even have your choice of Pronunciation Guide Systems and you can choose to have multiple systems displayed. This along with the app actually speaking the word in Thai makes learning as easy as it gets.

Take a look at their website here: http://www.paiboonpublishing.com/info/product/new-talking-dictionary-app-for-iphone/

and also here: http://word-in-the-hand.com/thaidictiphone_ov.html

You can even download a free PC trial version here: http://word-in-the-hand.com/thaidictwin_eval.html (150 words).

It's a terrific product.

[grin]

Do either the PC or iPhone version of this app have a male speaking each word? It seems to me that most of the voice samples of spoken Thai are limited to female speakers.

[Rikker]

The voice is Benjawan herself, IIRC--to answer your question, no, I don't believe there's a male voice.

[HappyInCM]

The voice is Benjawan herself, IIRC--to answer your question, no, I don't believe there's a male voice.

Does anyone know whether it's possible to get at the individual mp3 files? I'd like to use her dictionary to build my anki decks. Her website doesn't indicate whether this is possible.

[SoftWater]

There is no downloadable version for a mac user, correct?

Klons, you could run Windows on your Mac using Parallels, that's what I've started doing recently as there was a couple of high-end technical documentation programs I needed that were never going to get ported to the Mac. However, if all you want to run is a dictionary, the cost is prohibitive. Parallels itself costs around 2000 baht if you download it from their website, or you can buy the CD in the iBeat/iStudio Mac shops around Bangkok for about 3,200 Baht. Then there's the cost of Windows 7 (I think I paid about 5000 baht for it)...

Still, it does come in handy, and I was able to evaluate the trial version of the dictionary on my Mac. I agree it does look good, and I'm tempted to buy. I had a couple of problems though - 1. the sound is clipped on some of the audio files at the end the first time you play some of them; I found that playing them a second or (sometimes) third time got rid of that error. The dictionary also crashed Windows 7 the first time I ran it, treating me to something neither Klons nor other Mac users ever normally have to worry about:

and about an hour of lost time trying to get Windows and Parallels running again (fortunately, it didn't affect my Mac, which is somewhat more robust).

Anyway, it seems to be working fine now, but I'm going to run that trial a few more times before I decide to shell out. If it works without problems, it does look very good.

edit: I forgot to say, the Help documentation is very well done and very well-integrated; something that is often an oversight on many pieces of software, but not here.

Edited January 12, 2011 by SoftWater

[klons]

The voice is Benjawan herself, IIRC--to answer your question, no, I don't believe there's a male voice.

Does anyone know whether it's possible to get at the individual mp3 files? I'd like to use her dictionary to build my anki decks. Her website doesn't indicate whether this is possible.

If you can play them on your computer, you can record them with audacity and then save them as mp3 files.

I do that with thailanguage.com.

[HappyInCM]

The voice is Benjawan herself, IIRC--to answer your question, no, I don't believe there's a male voice.

Does anyone know whether it's possible to get at the individual mp3 files? I'd like to use her dictionary to build my anki decks. Her website doesn't indicate whether this is possible.

If you can play them on your computer, you can record them with audacity and then save them as mp3 files.

I do that with thailanguage.com.

Fair enough but I was hoping for something that would preserve the quality of the original recording (I assume you lose a little with your method) and something more automated so I can do 100s of words at a rime. I use thailanguage now too but download mp3s directly and with a script.

Is there a way to look up many words at a time using your method?

[sante]

I've made a deck using an Anki plug-in to record the sound and copy-paste for the Thai words.

[desi]

Surprisingly I won this program in a contest from the "Women Learning Thai (and some men too)" website a while back. Thanx for the heads up about the up graded version, I just downloaded it.

Todd, the heads up on the new version just went out, so perhaps contact Chris through their website to get on the email list for next time.

[desi]

Anyway, it seems to be working fine now, but I'm going to run that trial a few more times before I decide to shell out. If it works without problems, it does look very good.

I was one of the beta testers for Mac/Parallels and after I upgraded to the latest Parallels I didn't have any problems running the dictionary software (Parallels = me was the problem, not their dictionary). It's been months and months with out a glitch.

(note: I wasn't a very diligent beta tester as I was absent a great deal, but I've spent a fair time with their software dictionary then and now)

[johnh101]

Anyway, it seems to be working fine now, but I'm going to run that trial a few more times before I decide to shell out. If it works without problems, it does look very good.

I was one of the beta testers for Mac/Parallels and after I upgraded to the latest Parallels I didn't have any problems running the dictionary software (Parallels = me was the problem, not their dictionary). It's been months and months with out a glitch.

(note: I wasn't a very diligent beta tester as I was absent a great deal, but I've spent a fair time with their software dictionary then and now)

I installed parallels and windows on my Mac and within the day my email (hotmail) was hijacked and spamming.

[SoftWater]

If you can play them on your computer, you can record them with audacity and then save them as mp3 files.

I do that with thailanguage.com.

AudioHiJack (free download) will also do this, without loss of quality. But its a mac only program.

[HalfSquat]

Whats this like in the iphone/ipod? Don't think there is anything else like it on the apples.

[desi]

Whats this like in the iphone/ipod? Don't think there is anything else like it on the apples.

None of the others come close in sound, information, and ease (I've played with them all).

I'm too lazy to type out everything it does but you can read about it on their site: Talking Thai–English iPhone Dictionary

Chris and Benjawan put a lot of work into their dictionaries and have plans to do more.

[mystwoodcol]

Can anyone tell me where I can buy the CD for the software in Chiang Mai. I tried some of the book shops recommended on their website and they only sell the book .

I know I can buy it on line from Bangkok but lately everything mailed to me disappears before it gets to me, so I would rather purchase it direct, pay the money and get handed the CD

Thanks

[richsilver]

I have been using this app on the iPhone for several weeks now and it is terrific! I have been studying Thai for 19 years now and have seen almost all the available dictionaries (most are crap!) and for me, this is the very best. There is nothing I would do to make it better. Even when I am at home, I use the iPhone instead of one of my printed dictionaries to look up a word. The team obviously worked hard to get this right!

[bmore99]

Can anyone tell me where I can buy the CD for the software in Chiang Mai. I tried some of the book shops recommended on their website and they only sell the book .

I know I can buy it on line from Bangkok but lately everything mailed to me disappears before it gets to me, so I would rather purchase it direct, pay the money and get handed the CD

Thanks

Normally both Asia Books and SE-ED can order any Paiboon products for you.

Of course with software, you can download and make a CD yourself. ( http://word-in-the-hand.com/thaidictwin_ov.html )