[etni] electronic dictionaries

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Dear Etniers:

When the chozer about dictionaries came out, I noticed that there was a
problem with the electronic dictionaries. They are supposed to fulfill the
same criteria as the non-electronic dictionaries at the same level. However,
as Bari pointed out, there may not be any dictionary that meets the
requirements. For example, at the higher levels, the dictionary is supposed
to be English to Hebrew (Arabic etc.) and not Hebrew to English. I don't
know of any electronic dictionaries that are one-directional - except maybe
the Quicktionary (only the old Quicktionaries are approved) - which I'm not
sure fulfills the other requirements. I pointed this out to the English
Inspectorate, but didn't get a satisfactory answer. What is the point of
setting up requirements if there is no device available to meet them?
Furthermore, electronic dictionaries are very expensive - Students may want
to use one the family has already purchased, or borrow one from a friend who
has one. It would be very unfair to now disqualify electronic dictionaries
that were approved of in the past.

I think this issue needs to be dealt with ASAP - and the Chozer needs to be
changed to take into account the electronic dictionaries that have been on
the market in the past and that are currently available to the students.

BTW - I think the decision to ban the newest Quicktionary comes from a
misunderstanding. The new Quicktionary does not translate full lines or
sentences. It merely is able to scan more than one word at a time - the
definition the student gets is for each individual word, unrelated to the
words before it or after it. However, at least in the case of the
Quicktionary - the Ministry is not disqualifying a device that was permitted
in the past.

Yours,

Sharon Tzur

My home on the Net

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