More info the better?
According to Naver, its dictionary platform has partnered with five professional dictionary producers — Oxford Dictionary, Donga Publishing, YBM, Kyohak and Supreme — to provide definitions covering standard English.
For specialize terms in areas like music and science, Naver Dictionary has partnerships with other database providers. It besides operates a crowdsourced dictionary, called Open Dictionary, built by users of Naver.
It besides brings in words from crowdsourced dictionary websites, such as Urban Dictionary and Flickroom, to provide definitions of new or gull terms that standard dictionaries are decelerate to incorporate.
Naver insists that it has an internal filter system to weed out inappropriate definitions sourced from external sites, but said that ultimately it believes in the value of diverseness and making a much information available to users as possible.
“ Naver is an on-line dictionary, and the internet is built on the value of ‘ diversity. ’ We want to let users know that there are such kinds of information on the network. And there is greater value offering access to a wide range of information, and letting the users decide what to take in, ” a Naver spokesperson told The Korea Herald.
“ Language is something that changes with sociocultural changes in club. Words change over clock time and it ’ s the occupation of on-line dictionary services like us to reflect the changes into our service, ” the spokesperson said.
What about reliability?
While sources like Urban Dictionary do expand the database, should a mainstream dictionary like Naver ’ randomness — positioned as a authentic terminology learning tool — be using them ?
even Urban Dictionary ( or a thwart tennessean editor program ) defines itself as : “ A topographic point once used to find out about slang, and now a position that teens with no life use as a burn ledger to whine about celebrities, their friends, etc., let out their sexual frustrations ” and more.
“ Naver Dictionary revealing what looks to be very inappropriate results is not alone degrading its own quality, but besides identical contradictory on every degree, ” said 28-year-old Kim Gyu-min, an english write and consider coach in Seoul, when told about this phenomenon.
“ As a platform that provides an ‘ official ’ dictionary instrument and apps for people to download, Naver has a minimal duty to guarantee a certain choice of service to the standard public. Besides, Naver Dictionary aims to be identical different from the Naver research engine, and thus the excuse that it is merely showing search results neglects its own position in providing this tool as an official speech dictionary tool. ”
Similar concerns were voiced by korean parents, whose children use Naver Dictionary to look up english words while studying.
“ In this day and age, I understand our children obviously get access to a sea of information that we can ’ t command. But I think it ’ s obvious that we expect alone proper, accurate definitions to be included in an official dictionary like Naver Dictionary, ” said Lee Kyung-min, the mother of a 13-year-old daughter.
“ I think a ball dictionary chopine like Naver Dictionary should prioritize dependability rather than diverseness, considering the needs of the population using the chopine. Doesn ’ t the open web already cover the diverseness dowry pretty well ? ”
Kwak Joong-chol, a professor of english translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, Korea ’ s circus tent academic mental hospital in the translation domain, warned that Naver ’ s English-Korean dictionary “ should not be fully trusted, and referred to only as basic address material for those determine English. ”
“ Naver pools its definitions from multiple dictionaries, most of which provide alone misprint, linear translations. only a depart of the exemplar sentences ( intended to show how a particular english term is used ) are taken from reliable sources, while most of the English phrases have not even been translated into Korean, ” Kwak said.
He besides cautioned users to avoid Naver ’ south crowdsourced dictionaries including the firm ’ s own Open Dictionary, as the definitions they carry are unverified.
The professor added that Naver “ lacks a clear doctrine ” in how it runs its dictionary platform, and urged the party to adopt more rigorous guidelines for its English-Korean dictionary.
By Sohn Ji-young ( jys @ heraldcorp.com )
Paul Kerry contributed to this article. — Ed.
discipline : This article previously misnamed Kwak Joong-chol, a professor of english translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, as Nam Won-jun, another HUFS professor. We regret the error.
