"I hate using a traditional dictionary. It takes me a lot of time to look up a word. I do not think electronic dictionaries will make any mistakes.
"I rely on it whenever I have a problem in English," said Benjamin Lee, a 12-year-old student from Kowloon City.
Electronic dictionaries are popular and the sales are increasing since new models have entered the market.
According to Miss Lucia Wong, spokesperson of Group Sense Limited, the electronic dictionary is not only useful to primary and secondary school students, but also tertiary students.
"Executives also find it helpful in recording their appointments," she said.
As for their functions, the Consumer Council tested eight brands and 15 models of electronic dictionaries in March 1994.
The vocabulary capacity, articulation system, operation speed, portability, price and so on were the criteria in comparing different models.The results were published in the Choice Magazine in January.
According to the report, most electronic dictionaries have enough vocabulary and high operation speed.
However, voice articulation systems of all models were reported unsatisfactory. Vowels or consonants like "t", "d", "b" and "p" sound so similar in the dictionaries that they can be easily confused. The pronounciations are also mechanical in their effect on the user.
Some sales agents protested the findings. They regarded them as inaccurate and unfair.
Miss Wong of Group Sense Limited said, "The Consumer Council and consumers should be fair while evaluating the electronic dictionary, as translations are done by artificial intelligence.
"They should not compare human minds to computers. Translating sentences are too complicated for a computer so that there may be some deviations.
"Moreover, those examples given in the report are misleading because the Consumer Council did not follow the instructions in the user handbook.
"Otherwise, over half of the mistakes cited can be corrected."
Referring to the articulation function, a "back-to-speech" system can be applied to make the electronic dictionary "speak better".
"It has proved to be the best system in United States. But mechanical sounds should not be compared with human ones.
Despite the unfavourable report, Miss Wong is confident that negative effects on sales will be short- term only.
When the first electronic dictionary, the Instant Dict, came in 1989, its advantages over traditional dictionaries aroused public concern .
It is not as bulky as the traditional dictionary and is easily portable.
It can pronounce English words, while conventional dictionaries cannot. With artificial intelligence, electronic dictionaries can also translate sentences.
Besides functioning as a translator, it also serves as a calculator and information storage device.
These advantages outweigh the disadvantages, according to Miss Wong.
She said, "Its only disadvantage is the limitation in information storage. Explanations are not as detailed as those in traditional dictionaries."
Mr. Otto Kwok, spokesman of Great Han Trading Company, which is the regional sales representative of Lexicomp, agrees with Miss Wong.
He added, "The Lexicomp combines seven traditional dictionaries. When you buy seven dictionaries, a calculator, and an electronic diary only to find that they can be replaced by one electronic dictionary, you find it worth buying.
"Hence, electronic dictionaries will gradually become an basic neccessity, like a watch."
To Mr. Kwok, however, the Consumer Council report was not "too negative".
"The consumers have the right to know. It helps them to make a better choice," he said.
As a result of the report, the Consumer Council advised parents not to buy or stop their children from using those electronic dictionaries with artificial intelligence to translate English sentence into Chinese.
It also told students not to follow their pronounciations.
Mr. Au Pak Kuen, vice-president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, did not appreciate the electronic dictionaries much, either.
"Children nowadays get used to pressing buttons in problem solving. It is why electronic dictionaries become so popular.
"We are not disagreeing with new technologies. But, as a teacher, I do want students to learn through books. It is a matter of cultural inheritance."
According to him, traditional dictionaries are always preferable. They contain much more vocabulary.
Besides, an electronic dictionary is expensive. Prices of traditional dictionaries range from $30 to $50, while an electronic one costs about $2,000.
Their qualities, moreover, are unsatisfactory. Sometimes, the explanations and pronounciations are not good, added Mr. Au.
However, Mr. Au considers the use of electronic dictionary a minor factor, if any, in contributing to the declining English standards of students.
"Traditional dictionaries are described as 'dumb teachers'. The only advantage of the electronic one is that it is not dumb at all," he said.
A Year 2 engineering student at the Chinese University, Miss Wan Man Po, said, "Electronic dictionaries are especially useful when I have to read many articles with difficult words.
"However, some functions of electronic dictionaries are not helpful. For example, it can be used as a directory, but it is faster and more convenient to write down notes instead.
"Also, the clarity of the pronounciation is poor," she said.
However, Mrs. Yip Wong Yin Mui, 55, of Ho Man Tin, still finds electronic dictionaries useful.
"Although it is quite expensive, it is worthy.
"I cannot help my children when they have problems in English. In fact, I don't know much about English," she said.
As 12-year-old Benjamin Lee said, "When I persuaded my parents to buy me an electronic dictionary, they had no excuse to oppose it."
The advice from the Consumer Council for consumers is to use them with traditional ones as supplement.
All in all, the tradtional dictionary remains unexcelled.