Dec 10
7
Paragon Software Group invited language learners to “fall” in love with Germany in November by giving away licenses of its mobile dictionary products with content from the top three German reference publishers — PONS, Duden and Langenscheidt Publishing Group. From art festivals to holiday markets, Germany limns the warmth and charm of old-world traditions with the sharpness of the modern. Whether driving along the golden-hued Wine Road or listening to brassy jazz notes, or even reading about others’ travels from your mobile device, Paragon Software Group makes it easy for language lovers to say “Willkommen” to the beauty of Deutschland wherever and whenever they find themselves.
Recently, Hayes G. Dabney, II, who teaches English in Germany through his business english by doing in Hamburg traded out his portable electronic and paper-based bilingual dictionaries for Paragon’s SlovoEd German-English dictionary for his S60 device.
“Having a mobile dictionary is very useful,” says Hayes. “I can use it quickly, I can store words that I want to learn or teach, and use the software to test myself while riding the U-Bahn or waiting for my kid at ballet class. I can learn the different meanings of words so that I make sure I am using the right meaning of a word in the right situation.”
SlovoEd is a series of top-quality monolingual and bilingual dictionaries that contain reference content from the world’s most distinguished language publishers, including PONS GmbH, the Langenscheidt Publishing Group and Duden. With over 110 dictionaries available for 29 languages, SlovoEd dictionaries have been developed to satisfy a wide range of language professionals and learners, for both business applications and private use, and contain detailed information such usage notes, grammatical information and real-world examples.
“I like the example sentences that are given to show how the words are being used,” Hayes says. “I talk to a lot of people, and during the talking, we are searching for meaning, so it’s very nice to have a mobile dictionary that is fast and easy to use.”
Hayes says that he now uses his mobile dictionary more than his PONS and Langenscheidt paper dictionaries because it’s quicker and easier. “Now, if I don’t know what a word means, I don’t even think about it; I just look it up! It’s easy to handle, to hold, and it’s faster.”
SlovoEd Deluxe dictionaries include the fullest and most detailed translation articles with usage samples, synonyms and antonyms, references, and other important information, and is an excellent solution for professional linguists, translators and advanced users. Even so, Hayes finds that SlovoEd sometimes doesn’t have the word he’s looking for.
“We’re always evolving our engine and databases to better power apps that can help people all over the world learn and work more productively,” says Boris Zhukov, Chief Technology Officer at Paragon Software Group. In fact, Paragon has released a new online update feature for its SlovoEd dictionaries, which alerts users when updated dictionary versions are available for download. Additionally, the new built-in online dictionary catalog allows SlovoEd users to discover new dictionaries and download them directly to their devices.
Paragon is also currently developing a word-recognition feature for its German database that will bring up the correct word definition even when the word is written in non-basic form, such as with irregular verbs or plural forms, a functionality that is currently in use for Paragon Spanish, French and Russian SlovoEd databases.
In all, Hayes states that he is happy with his SlovoEd mobile dictionary, and finds that it helps him translate and work wherever he is in the world.
“I don’t think I will ever use a paper dictionary again.”
