Help, I've reviewed your demo, like what I see and now want to purchase. But should I go for the professional or the basic? I'm a starter learner, with 32 hours chinese done, keen on learning the characters and this is a serious hobby for me. Is the basic enough or should I do the professional? Or both? If I start with basic can I upgrade by paying the difference?
which product?
- Thread starter gweipo
- Start date
The Basic is probably enough for now, the Professional's more useful if you want to read real-life Chinese texts (newspapers etc) and it sounds like you're still a ways away from that.
You can't upgrade from the Basic to Professional version, unfortunately, as we have no way to "take back" the Oxford dictionary that's part of the Basic, but you can buy the ABC dictionary from the Professional version as an add-on later at a cost of $60.
You can't upgrade from the Basic to Professional version, unfortunately, as we have no way to "take back" the Oxford dictionary that's part of the Basic, but you can buy the ABC dictionary from the Professional version as an add-on later at a cost of $60.
I agree with Mike. However, both dictionaries do still complement each other well, even at beginner level:
- The ABC displays pinyin for pretty much all the examples given, whereas the Oxford dictionary, beyond the headword just gives you the characters and you'll have to highlight the words and characters you can't pronounce one by one (as well as work out the character breakdown, which the ABC very nicely gives you in its pinyin display). It seems a small thing, but when I was a beginner-early intermediate I very much preferred the ABC examples over the Oxford's because of this.
- The Oxford C-E is a great productive dictionary. In other words, the limited number of entries captures everyday Chinese and doesn't contain lots of obscure, rarely-used or defunct words, so it's excellent for browsing and building a vocabulary (E.g. Checking and learning all the words that a character appears in). The ABC dictionary will be better, as Mike suggests, once you start reading a lot, probably after a year or two. I found it excellent for reading for my 1919-1949 literature class, where many of the texts contained words that are simply not used anymore and which the Oxford dictionary lacked.
- Both C-E dictionaries often complement each other in vocabulary examples. Sometimes where the Oxford just gives the definition and nothing more, the ABC will have an example, and vice versa. Sometimes the Oxford entry is better used as a flashcard, sometimes the ABC entry for the same word seems better.
- Both English to Chinese dictionaries offered are similar and have gaps here and there, but together they cover most of the ground. In my opinion, they're both of value.
Basically, if you're serious about learning Chinese and willing to pay the extra, you'd be best getting the whole lot by buying the 'Complete' edition. I doubt you'll regret it. You'll find that each has it's own advantages at different stages and aspects of the learning process, while also complementing each other in many ways.
A Chinese-Chinese dictionary is likely to be offered later this year and that's one that you would be unlikely to derive much value out of until you really get into your reading.
Hope that helps you make a decision.
Ben
- The ABC displays pinyin for pretty much all the examples given, whereas the Oxford dictionary, beyond the headword just gives you the characters and you'll have to highlight the words and characters you can't pronounce one by one (as well as work out the character breakdown, which the ABC very nicely gives you in its pinyin display). It seems a small thing, but when I was a beginner-early intermediate I very much preferred the ABC examples over the Oxford's because of this.
- The Oxford C-E is a great productive dictionary. In other words, the limited number of entries captures everyday Chinese and doesn't contain lots of obscure, rarely-used or defunct words, so it's excellent for browsing and building a vocabulary (E.g. Checking and learning all the words that a character appears in). The ABC dictionary will be better, as Mike suggests, once you start reading a lot, probably after a year or two. I found it excellent for reading for my 1919-1949 literature class, where many of the texts contained words that are simply not used anymore and which the Oxford dictionary lacked.
- Both C-E dictionaries often complement each other in vocabulary examples. Sometimes where the Oxford just gives the definition and nothing more, the ABC will have an example, and vice versa. Sometimes the Oxford entry is better used as a flashcard, sometimes the ABC entry for the same word seems better.
- Both English to Chinese dictionaries offered are similar and have gaps here and there, but together they cover most of the ground. In my opinion, they're both of value.
Basically, if you're serious about learning Chinese and willing to pay the extra, you'd be best getting the whole lot by buying the 'Complete' edition. I doubt you'll regret it. You'll find that each has it's own advantages at different stages and aspects of the learning process, while also complementing each other in many ways.
A Chinese-Chinese dictionary is likely to be offered later this year and that's one that you would be unlikely to derive much value out of until you really get into your reading.
Hope that helps you make a decision.
Ben
mikelove said:
In the Palm section over at yale.edu/chinesemac/ they seem to indicate that the handwriting recognition for the ABC dictionary is much better than in the Basic package of the PlecoDict, and to me a good HWR would be the single-most important feature. Are there indeed two qualities of the HWR?
TNX! -Martin
No, the handwriting recognizer in the Basic/Professional/Complete versions is completely identical now; they're referring to the recognizer we used to use in our old Oxford Dict software, which was included in the free PlecoDict Basic upgrades we gave to people who'd purchased that software. But anyone buying any version of PlecoDict now gets the new recognizer.