electronic dictionaries

Translator Technology – The Dixau DX3

Posted in Korean language, Technology, Uncategorized by 노강호 on April 18, 2011

The Dixau DX3, by Unichal

I’ve had an electronic dictionary but got so annoyed with it I hurled on the floor and smashed it. The problem is electronic dictionaries bought in Korea aren’t as useful for the English learner of Korean as they are for the Korean learner of English. I bought it primarily to study hanja and if I were Korean this would be fantastic but naturally, the keyed in hanja produced a definition in Korean.

I was really excited a few weeks ago when a student appeared in a class with a dictionary that sat on your text and was able to instantly scan a selected word and produce not just an LED definition, but spoken rendition. My interest rapidly sank when I discovered the rendition was only in English. However, as a piece of technology, it was amazing and translates not just English, but German, Spanish and French. As per usual, it is equipped with audio and video playback.

the cute DX2

In 2007, I bought a Nurian translator and at over 200.000 Won (£100), I wasn’t that impressed. It certainly wasn’t top of the range and I’ve seen much sleeker, user friendly models since. I guess mine was an old model. The DX3 is around 2 years old and the price in Korea, under 200.000 Won. I recently saw one advertised in the USA for $199.

Other similar devices include Wizcom’s pen-scanner, the Quicktionary, which looks like a cross between a tube of toothpaste and vibrator. The basic costs is between $150-200 and different language packages can be bought at around $20 a time. The list of languages available is extensive but as usual, there are no Korean to English versions.