Chinese-English dictionary
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Sheila Collins
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:20 pm
Chinese-English dictionary
I need a really good online Chinese-English dictionary (Mandarin). My private student is 17 years old, and is essentially fluent in English, but is having a hard time with the nuances of synonyms. Do you know of one which gives explanations in Mandarin, as well as translations?
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
Hi Sheila! There's a whole two-page list of C-E dictionaries here:
http://www.alphadictionary.com/director ... n/Chinese/
Then there is www.nciku.com , which boasts a 'Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary' besides the Collins (I'm not sure if this Comprehensive dictionary also appears in the alphadictionary list, so I thought I should mention nciku too), as well as allowing not only Pinyin to be typed in but also Chinese characters to be written and entered as a means of searching the site's C-E content (the MBDG dictionary via the alphadictionary link also allows handwriting) ~ The Collins dictionary as linked to via alphadictionary doesn't seem to allow much C-E searchability even by way of Pinyin (+ tone number), so it might be useful only for E-C searching.
I'm not sure though that any of the above dictionaries will supply much explanation beyond the usual short gloss or translation, so for greater detail (e.g. comparisons of at least select synonyms), you'll probably need to get actual printed books such as the fully bilingualized (E-E-C) edition of the Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English (by Tom McArthur), which would seem off the top of my head about the best available translated thing for nuances*; failing finding that, you might like to consider a fully bilingualized edition of more straightforward dictionaries such as Longman's intermediate-level Active Study Dictionary or the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (I seem to recall that those two learner dictionaries have about the most 'Which word?' type of boxes, but if the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is also now available bilingualized and in a recent edition then that too would be a good buy).
So, if none of the available net dictionaries quite have what you're looking for, try in your local bookstores to find books such as those just mentioned (you're in China, right? So these books shouldn't be completely impossible to come by locally, if you live in a reasonably big city) or on Amazon, and perhaps suggest to your student that they invest in one of them (I doubt if any would be much more than 100 RMB still, and the lower quality, cheaper Chinese reprints are nearer half that, but bear in mind I bought the stuff I have about a decade ago now, in Shanghai). Actually, I used to buy such reasonably-priced (to a westerner) dictionaries for serious students, and didn't always ask for the money back if they were continuing to take lessons, occassionally insisting on treating me to dinner (even when I wanted to pay at least my half) etc - I kind of viewed it as an incentive for students to "sign up" for lessons from me. But obviously I didn't ever have that many private students, because otherwise I'd have needed a van or something to transport all the books around!
*Unless the Longman Language Activator has also been bilingualized - I was asking about this possibility on the China forum recently, but didn't get any response to suggest it had been.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/director ... n/Chinese/
Then there is www.nciku.com , which boasts a 'Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary' besides the Collins (I'm not sure if this Comprehensive dictionary also appears in the alphadictionary list, so I thought I should mention nciku too), as well as allowing not only Pinyin to be typed in but also Chinese characters to be written and entered as a means of searching the site's C-E content (the MBDG dictionary via the alphadictionary link also allows handwriting) ~ The Collins dictionary as linked to via alphadictionary doesn't seem to allow much C-E searchability even by way of Pinyin (+ tone number), so it might be useful only for E-C searching.
I'm not sure though that any of the above dictionaries will supply much explanation beyond the usual short gloss or translation, so for greater detail (e.g. comparisons of at least select synonyms), you'll probably need to get actual printed books such as the fully bilingualized (E-E-C) edition of the Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English (by Tom McArthur), which would seem off the top of my head about the best available translated thing for nuances*; failing finding that, you might like to consider a fully bilingualized edition of more straightforward dictionaries such as Longman's intermediate-level Active Study Dictionary or the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (I seem to recall that those two learner dictionaries have about the most 'Which word?' type of boxes, but if the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is also now available bilingualized and in a recent edition then that too would be a good buy).
So, if none of the available net dictionaries quite have what you're looking for, try in your local bookstores to find books such as those just mentioned (you're in China, right? So these books shouldn't be completely impossible to come by locally, if you live in a reasonably big city) or on Amazon, and perhaps suggest to your student that they invest in one of them (I doubt if any would be much more than 100 RMB still, and the lower quality, cheaper Chinese reprints are nearer half that, but bear in mind I bought the stuff I have about a decade ago now, in Shanghai). Actually, I used to buy such reasonably-priced (to a westerner) dictionaries for serious students, and didn't always ask for the money back if they were continuing to take lessons, occassionally insisting on treating me to dinner (even when I wanted to pay at least my half) etc - I kind of viewed it as an incentive for students to "sign up" for lessons from me. But obviously I didn't ever have that many private students, because otherwise I'd have needed a van or something to transport all the books around!
*Unless the Longman Language Activator has also been bilingualized - I was asking about this possibility on the China forum recently, but didn't get any response to suggest it had been.
Character Sets
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