The Catholic Bible Dictionary by Scott Hahn - A Book Review

The Catholic Bible Dictionary by Scott Hahn is the most up-to-date dictionary on Catholic biblical terms in over a generation. In a person's lifetime, so many things can change. This change is also evident in the study of church scripture and historical texts, and how these are interpreted and made understandable to a more modern audience.

Thus, this bible dictionary is an invaluable text for any catholic who takes his faith seriously and wants to understand it better. Catholics are familiar with the bible, its passages, and its meanings. However, this dictionary will open up a whole new world of information and enlightenment that breezing through the bible during school and listening to mass readings won't give you.

In the same way, this book will be an interesting and entertaining read even for non-Catholics who are simply curious about the faith.  The biblical facts and studies are all written in an easy to understand way, so that you don't have to familiar with the Catholic faith in order to appreciate this text. Who knows, some readers of this text may end up joining the faith as well.

On the other hand, for bible study students, this book can also be a reliable source of information, whether on the meaning of words, the historical implications and symbolisms of biblical events, and so on. There are so many so-called books and articles on the bible that are either incorrect or incomplete. Why settle for inferior sources when you can get this 100% correct and complete source on the Catholic bible?

And because this book is so reliable even members of the Catholic Church congregation could use this book, in case they need to make quick references about queries they may have regarding their homilies or research. After all, no one is so smart that he can memorize everything there is to know about the Catholic faith.

So whether you are a devout Catholic, a biblical scholar, a member of the Church hierarchy, or just someone curious about the faith, the Catholic Bible Dictionary by Scott Hahn can be your best source of information.

For more information, check other Catholic Bible Dictionary by Scott Hahn book reviews.

Erika Ayala works part time for a consumer review company.

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ESL Teacher Textbook Review - The Oxford Picture Dictionary

If you are an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher looking for the ultimate textbook to teach your students vocabulary, then you are going to love the Oxford Picture Dictionary (Monolingual English). This textbook is perfect for any ESL student and any ESL teacher. It can be used by students of all levels, and contains important English words or vocabulary. We use this book at our ESL school, Hawaii Literacy's Drop In Center, because it can be used with any level of student. As long as the student has learned their basic ABCs and basics of English reading, they can learn from it effectively.

To understand the amazing adaptability of this ESL textbook, I will discuss a little more about how it is used in our school. The Drop-In Center is a free ESL school for the local immigrant community of Hawaii, hence student attendance is not consistent. Students are free to come and go and thus it is difficult to have a traditional lesson plan structure. In addition, since the school is mostly run by volunteers, there are often not enough ESL teachers to divide students into different levels.

The Oxford Picture Dictionary offers many advantages for us:

1) It has relevant vocabulary for all levels of students (you can check out the table of contents on Amazon.com).

2) Students and ESL teachers can begin on any page at any time (so new students will not feel like they are behind the class).

3) Pictures can be understood even if the student has a very minimal level of English.

4) All levels of students find the book useful and engaging.

5) The teacher's manual and workbooks are excellent and make teaching and learning much easier.

6) It is inexpensive for most students (about $17)

Of course, even with these many advantages, the book is a reference book...a picture dictionary. Therefore, in order to make it interesting to students, the ESL teacher will need to integrate it into an effective classroom experience.

For my class, I usually use the Teacher's Manual, which already has ready made sample dialogues, lists of sentences for dictation, discussion questions, related vocabulary and other suggested activities. I might throw in a quiz or two to help the students check their comprehension.

Then I have them go home and review the vocabulary on their own at ESL teacher http://www.eslteacherguide.blogspot.com, a blog I created with the corresponding video lessons. We have the students work on only one page of the book a week, so that they have the opportunity to go home and absorb the words effectively. Some of the other ESL teachers at our school integrate the vocabulary into their grammar practices, or into their own self-created activities. Whatever your classroom focus is or what methods you use, the Oxford Picture Dictionary is by far the best textbook for American English vocabulary building.

Meylysa Tseng,
ESL Teacher (Resources for Students Learning English, Resources for the ESL Teacher), http://www.eslteacherguide.blogspot.com

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A Review of a Mexican Spanish Dictionary - The Dictionary of Chicano Spanish

As every Spanish translator knows, Spanish is a diverse language and can vary among speakers, depending on the region where it is spoken. There are many different regions in the world where Spanish is spoken and translators have to know how to deal with these regional varieties in their translations.

For example, Spanish spoken in Cuba is slightly different than Spanish spoken in Spain, which is slightly different from the Spanish spoken in Mexico or the Dominican Republic.

Because of the differences that exist in the Spanish of different regions of the world, Spanish translators have to know what audience their translation is intended for. However, as good as translators can be in understanding these differences, they might not know them right off the bat all the time, and therefore rely on help and translation aids to clear up any confusion they might have. This is especially true when translating slang terms and terminology.

One of the best translation aids to have is people who are from different regions so that you can ask them their advice and opinion on word usage or terms you might run across. However, sometimes translators are unable to find someone to help them out and have to use dictionaries or other written aids to help them out.

In the case where a translator has to go to a dictionary for answers, it's good to have a series of dictionaries with regional words in them. One of the more well-known (Chicano) Mexican Spanish dictionaries available is The Dictionary of Chicano Spanish.

This dictionary, according to the preface written by a former governor of New Mexico, "contains the special colloquial, euphemistic, slang, and commonplace expressions of the speech of Mexican-American citizens in the United States, along with the spelling and pronunciation variants common to Chicano Spanish."

While it doesn't contain all slang terminology specific to Mexico, it does have over 9,000 "words and expressions not usually found in standard references" and it also has variant spelling for these Chicano words and phrases. The author has also included a very useful appendix listing 650 common proverbs and sayings, as well as a bibliography that you can use to find even more resources on the topic.

The book is less than 250 pages and while the latest edition was published over 10 years ago (1995), it's still a great book to have in your Mexican Spanish dictionary collection. Also, you can find used ones for fairly cheap on Amazon.com, which make it a bargain dictionary to have.

Clint Tustison is a Spanish English translator interested in helping businesses and translators better understand the translation industry. If you're interested in how to improve your translation business or your relationship with translation companies, check out his website at http://www.spanish-translation-help.com

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Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary: A Book Review

Go to the language learning section of any large bookstore and you will find Spanish dictionaries galore, along with dozens if not hundreds of Spanish instructional books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, flash cards and more. The choice is almost overwhelming.

Among dictionaries for people who are trying to learn Spanish, a handful rise to the top. One of the best is Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary; A Beginner's Guide in Words and Pictures by Gladys C. Lipton and Olivia Muñoz.

This is a two-way dictionary (English to Spanish and Spanish to English) focusing on approximately 1,400 words in each language. It is said that the casual traveler can get along quite well knowing around a thousand words in a host country's language, if they're the right words and if he knows how to assemble them to express basic thoughts. Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary might be all one needs, in addition to a phrase book, for negotiating the streets of Mexico City or Buenos Aires.

Each entry in this dictionary not only gives the word's translation in the opposite language, but also uses it in a sentence - which is presented in both English and Spanish. Many of the words are also illustrated with simple line drawings.

A couple of years ago, my wife, then-9-year-old daughter and I traveled to Guatemala on a family vacation that included several hours of Spanish language learning each morning. Before the trip we picked out dictionaries for taking to class. We bought this one for our daughter because it most resembled a children's dictionary. After a couple of days of instruction, though, I began envying her and wished I had a copy of my own. Whenever I had a chance to refer to it, I often found that I preferred its definitions and illustrative sentences to those in my "grown-up," more comprehensive Spanish dictionary.

The strength of Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary - its limited word list -- is also its weakness, though. If you travel much in Spanish-speaking countries, especially if you take language instruction, you will inevitably encounter words that are not to be found here. My advice is to pack this dictionary along with a more complete one, and you will be all set for whatever language adventures await you.

Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary is published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.; ISBN # 0-7641-0281-8.

H. Tim Sevets is books editor for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium, where he specializes in objective reviews of the top money-making reports sold over the Web. Recently, he reviewed an e-book that claims to show how to make money by tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. Read his opinion at http://www.solid-gold.info/tear-up-old-books-sell-ebay.html.

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Dictionary iPhone App Review

A dictionary is an indispensable part of our day-to-day living. It is used in libraries, schools, and even offices. Though we stock ourselves dozens of pocket dictionaries, they can still become quite inconvenient at times. But with the innovative Dictionary for iPhone today, we can say goodbye to carrying our stacks of books around.

Let us take a peek into the Dictionary iPhone app review by reading the sections below.

The Notion

Why pay for something when you can download a dictionary for free? Aside from its being complimentary, this iPhone app solves the issue of "book-carrying" by putting all the features of a dictionary into a single software. It contains around 80,000 synonyms and over 275,000 words. Included in the program are the fundamental thesaurus and dictionary functions together with audio pronunciations for various words. There is also a "word-of-a-day" section where users can learn new word meanings.

A Look Into Quality

The Dictionary app for iPhone is stylish yet simple. It is as straightforward as any useful dictionary in the planet. If you search for a word, you instantly get its meaning. And if you need a synonym for that word, you simply have to click on the thesaurus tab and you get what you need straight away. What's more, the thesaurus would provide a list of other words that can be used in replacement of the original word you are looking for.

This app is especially useful for teachers, travelers, students, writers, readers, and people who find word search important in their daily lives. Aside from being cheap, the Dictionary for iPhone doesn't require online connectivity. You can use it in places where there is no access to the net. The Dictionary app does what it is set out do; and the amazing part of it is - it works pretty well.

Some Minor Disadvantages

The only disadvantage of this software is that some of the features require internet connectivity. The "similarly spelled words" and "audio pronunciation" are two features which need internet. The first feature allows users to check for misspellings and to come up with a list of words that can possibly be the item you're looking for. The latter, on the other hand, allows you to hear the pronunciation of the word itself.

Although these features are not as important as deriving the word meanings itself, these can also come in handy. In totality, the product is as useful as any other dictionary in the planet.

If you wish to read more iPhone app reviews, visit our site and find all information you need.

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Yahoo Spanish Dictionary - A Review

Many search engines and directories, in their attempts to be global portals, offer various dictionary capabilities on their websites. One of the websites that does this is Yahoo.

Yahoo is one of the most popular websites on the planet and the reason is because of what they offer their visitors. One of the services they offer is a Yahoo Spanish dictionary. Actually, it isn't a monolingual dictionary; rather, it's a bilingual Spanish English dictionary.

The dictionary is actually The American Heritage Spanish Dictionary. First of all, you can find the location of the dictionary on Yahoo's Education dictionary site.

This Yahoo Spanish dictionary is free and seems to be a pretty good online dictionary. It boasts more than 70,000 entries with more than 120,000 definitions. What I like about this dictionary is that it's been newly revised and includes a ton of current vocabulary in all new fields, such as the Internet, telecommunications, and the computer industry.

Another good thing about the dictionary is that it uses Latin American Spanish, rather than the Spanish spoken in Spain. In addition, it features American English.

One of the really good things about this dictionary is that it comes with an online user guide in both English and Spanish. This user guide is similar to appendices listed in the back or middle section of many bilingual dictionaries. The guide contains all sorts of useful information, including a guide on using the dictionary, grammar notes, common abbreviations in English and Spanish, as well as some other really useful material.

All in all, the Yahoo Spanish dictionary is one of the better online Spanish dictionaries I've seen online and it's definitely one that I would recommend you add to your bookmarks. You'll use it often and it will help you out tons.

Clint Tustison is a Spanish English translator interested in helping businesses and translators better understand the translation industry. If you're interested in how to improve your translation business or your relationship with translation companies, check out his website at http://www.spanish-translation-help.com

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