Collins English/Spanish Talking Dictionary

by Victory Multimedia

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000544GX
• Item model number: MPM2443
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,993 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

This English-Spanish talking dictionary is designed for anyone who needs to use English or Spanish, from the beginning student to the language professional. The dictionary comes with a set of tools for speedy look-up of any words, checking their meaning and pronunciation, and verifying translations of any text on the computer. The variety of settings and levels makes the software simple and straightforward to use.

The Shooting Gallery exercise helps the user learn new words more quickly. The program offers different levels of difficulty and different word ranges to suit the language level, including the 500/1,000/1,500/2,000/2,500/3,000 most commonly used words. The crossword puzzles included in the software are never repeated, and are also offered in various levels of difficulty.

The AudioPad module is designed to teach correct pronunciation. With the help of AudioPad, the learner can listen to the original speech of a professional native speaker and also record and listen to his or her own speech. In addition, each sound fragment is graphically displayed, which makes practicing more vivid and helps the user to imitate all nuances of the pronunciation with greater precision.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Product -- for Europe, May 14, 2001

By 

Richard H. Mason "Florida Doc" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collins English/Spanish Talking Dictionary (CD-ROM)

This is a wonderfully easy-to-use English-Spanish dictionary and vocabulary tool that is stable (from a computer standpoint), and has good -- but not overly verbose definitions. As a physician who cares for many Hispanic patients and a teacher of medical Spanish, I find it invaluable for rapid reference after just a week. HOWEVER, the English pronunciations are VERY British and are TERRIBLY confusing to the Latin American students to whom I have demonstrated the program. After I contacted the company, they informed me that they have NO PLANS TO INCLUDE AMERICAN ENGLISH. Likewise, the Spanish is European. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO U.S. STUDENTS who want it to improve their pronunciation for use in situations where Latin American Spanish is spoken -- like the entire Western Hemisphere! It is analogous to foreigners who learn British English and then come to the U.S. When their accent is combined with their attempts at British pronunciation, they are very difficult to understand for most gringos. The vocabulary games seem rather basic, but I haven't explored them sufficiently to comment since I employ the program as a quick reference while writing in Spanish. In a nutshell, an EXCELLENT DICTIONARY for quick reference while writing, reading, or learning. TERRIBLE for learning American English pronunciation (e.g. a student studying for TOFEL) or Latin American Spanish pronunciation. (The following is based on limited observations.) The vocabulary games are rudimentary, and I hope that they will be more sophisticated in future releases (as far as more vocabulary catagories) to allow students to concentrate on specific areas easily.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Clunky interface, missing features, European sounds, August 22, 2005

By 

M. Fairchild "Books my thing" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collins English/Spanish Talking Dictionary (CD-ROM)

I'm not familiar with other computer based Spanish-English dictionaries with audio pronuncaiation, or even if there are any. This one is OK if all you want to do is look up words on the computer instead of in a printed dictionary and get some clue about how they're pronounced. But, the controls are mystifying, the help function doesn't, the pronunciation is Castilian for the Spanish and British for the English, and the games don't have all the features the intro movie so breezily shows - like, the option to select the crossword puzzle vocabulary from a restricted list of words. I happened to buy this used and cheap and am content - I got what I paid for, I suppose - but don't have high expectations of either its features or its ease of use.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK... but wanting, May 22, 2006

By 

William E. Magnuson "Magnus98" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collins English/Spanish Talking Dictionary (CD-ROM)

I'm on my way to Costa Rica and all the pronunciation in this dictionary are in European Spanish... often quite different from the Latin American pronuciations. The English pronunications are ofteb quite different also. Some good feautres, but crude. Keep trying! Evertually you'll get it. I wish you would come out with something for the people in the States. Thanks