Digital Dictionaries

DICTIONARIES

As a learner I had to use a dictionary, whether it be primary school or high school the teachers always encouraged us to use a dictionary to look up the words we did not understand. Always saying: "Dont ask me, use a dictionary". Once I asked my teacher why don't you just tell me the meaning of the word and she said: if  you look it up yourself you will remember it instead of me just telling you. 

If we were allowed to use our phones in the classroom I could have easily just Googled the word or use an online dictionary. Now as an university student I truly do appreciate online dictionaries. When the lecturer uses a word I don't understand its quick and easy just to Google it, or try and derive its meaning from the context in which it was said. 

If you are a learner or a student busy in any way with academic work, I believe a good digital dictionary is crucial to have as it helps a lot. 

I would like to speak of two in particular, one of which I have been using since my high school days namely Longman South African School Dictionary and the one I started to use on varsity HAT, Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaans Taal.    

Longman South African School Dictionary, I bought the dictionary and along with it enclosed in the back cover  came the CD. I installed the dictionaries software on my computer and frequently used it. I have to confess I never actually used the physical dictionary, today I don't know where it is, but I am still using the digital version of it. 

What Longman has done with their digital dictionary has truly made learning fun in my opinion. Not only have they made a digital dictionary but also included language games which makes it fun to learn. This include a Language Trainer and Word Games. The language trainer on its own has a variety of options such as  spelling, grammar, vocabulary and dictation as games to allow the learner / user practice the language and try and become more proficient in it.  Word Games is wonderfully designed and also includes and abundance of subsections to choose from, such as matching, wordsearch, crossword, complete the word, label the picture and match pairs.

Longman has also included a photo dictionary in the package, thus if you type a word in and its a object that the dictionary has available as a photo, you will be able to see it. It also has an option where you click on the speaker symbol next to the word and it will be pronounce the word for you, in order to help with your pronunciation of the word.  

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Another electronic dictionary that I have used is the HAT, Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaans Taal. This is mostly used by students in secondary school and university. This Afrikaans dictionary has a number of options available as well, ranging from an alphabetical list to looking up a word and finding the root word in the dictionary.

The e-HAT is a user friendly electronic dictionary in Afrikaans. It is in a sense a basic dictionary offering no word games or language trainer. Otherwise it is a very user friendly dictionary.   

To find a word one could simply just type it in, in the opening on top or you could press Ctrl + 1, that would open up a dialog box which gives you even more options in finding the word you need. This dialogue box gives you more options such as: Trefwoord, Woord, Frase and Afkorting. This gives you an easy way to find what you looking for, in other words a more direct approach.  

On the left hand side of the e-HAT you will find a column with different options one could tick, the last two options in particular I find very useful. It is Afkortings (abbreviations) and Geografiese name (geographical name). Under Afkortings you just go to the letter which you afkorting starts with and search for it there. With Geografiese name it gives a three columns namely: Pleknaam, Inwoner and Byvoeglike naamwoord. This is extremely useful as you can see how the words differentiate when used differently. For example if the country is Suid Afrika , the people in the country are Suid Afrikaaners and  the descriptive noun would be Suid Afrikanse.   

There are many more options available online, which one does not have to be download and install on to your computer, which solely exist as online dictionaries, these are good referencing tools when one Googles a word. As usual when one is busy with academic work always make sure the source is reliable and can be cited in essays.