TURBOCHARGED ONLINE DICTIONARIES

To most people English is just a means in the grand scheme of things, not the end. Nevertheless, in this ever-globalizing world, being articulate when you write or speak, both in your own language and your company’s, will set you on the right track toward that league where you can make the money you hunger for and do the jobs you aspire to. Getting a language down is no minor feat, it takes time, will-power, and ironclad self-esteem. English will surely be part of the skill-sets your professional version should have. In order to get motivated, define who your rival is or you would like him/her to be. An all-time classic rule of thumb: model yourself on those people whose qualities you would like to have. Oftentimes you will compete against those who went to fully bilingual schools or with a spell in the States or Great Britain under their belts working or doing some post-graduate course. However, keep constantly in mind that becoming proficient in a foreign language - and by this I mean giving a presentation to a large audience, bonding with native speakers who might put your career growth on steroids, or taking a firm stance on a deal against 5 sharks at the other end of a telephone or Skype conference call - is 100% within the realm of the possible.

In order to reach that stage, a handy dictionary is one of the most valuable tools you can avail yourself of. Until not long ago, dictionaries were updated every 10 or so years, that is, if you happened to buy a copy of, say, Oxford or Merriam-Webster, its next update would reach you a decade later. In our frantic world, in which everything seems to reinvent itself at breakneck speed, this fact just borders on the surreal. Well, with the massive spread of the Internet, the Earth shed its skin and so did dictionaries. The top players have their online versions with all the trimmings such as terms’ definitions, examples of how they work in a sentence, and even the unique luxury of audio pronunciation with the accents from both sides of the Atlantic ... for free.

Here you have some of the heavy-weights in this field broken down by language and category. Get off cruise speed, dive headfirst into it, don’t rush through the information, and - above all - enjoy it.

ENGLISH- ENGLISH DICTIONARIES

They all include the latest terms such as: Brexit, to Vape, and avant-garde IT jargon.

CAMBRIDGE - Pretty much one of my favorites. It is backed by a very prestigious publishing house. It also provides words related to the one we are looking up (in ‘See more results”), which may not seem all that important, but it is when seeking deeper background.

LONGMAN Another classic. Pretty much the same as the Cambridge one, with some “collocations”, that is, expressions that always go together with the one we are looking up.

OXFORD No introduction needed. Neck and neck with either of the above. Drawing a parallel with Apple: It lost its reign, but it’s still so first class. It also provides a bunch of extra perks such as articles to read and the like. A real treat for language-crazy folk.

A bunch of other dictionaries:

COLLINS A very good dictionary. Quite similar to the previous three. It also has as a bonus track the

MERRIAM-WEBSTER The granddaddy of American English dictionaries. An institution in its very own right.

THE FREE DICTIONARY Hands-on, with lots of examples and with the bonus of an app on IOS and Android.

DICTIONARY.COM It feeds off some very important dictionaries such as American Heritage or Random House. It also has a Thesaurus when you are in need of synonyms.

ENGLISH-SPANISH/ SPANISH-ENGLISH

WORD REFERENCE Frankly, in my view, it is the best available online for free.

SPANISHDICT Also a good one, but only Spanish to English, not the other way around.

FINANCE

INVESTOPEDIA English-English. It helped me more than once to grasp finance parlance and not lose face with clients.

BUSINESS DICTIONARY English-English. I would rank it at the same level as Investopedia or, at least, at its heels.

INVESTORWORDS English-English. A good dictionary as well, with definitions at ground level that even a layman can understand.

IT

COMPUTERLANGUAGE. In this day and age with technology ruling the world, ubiquitous tech neologisms creep into our lives every few weeks. You don’t need to be a would-be nerd to drop tons of IT words and it’s always good to have a source of reference to fall back on.

SPANISH DICTIONARIES

DICCIONARIO DE LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA The RAE dictionary online. Definitions, examples, that is, just as English dictionaries have been doing for decades now. The examples given are not only useful for a someone whose mother tongue is not Spanish, but also for Spanish native speakers as well as it shows us how a word is exactly used in a context and with what preposition.

DOWNLOADABLE RAE (IOS) There is an excellent downloadable version of RAE, which allows you to use it offline. You can have it on your smartphone, readily available, full disposal after

DICCIONARIO PANHISPÁNICO DE DUDAS What´s the right conjugation of LICUAR or ADECUAR? LICUO or LICÚO? How do I say “stage” in Spanish” ESTADIO or ESTADÍO? Don’t disregard any of these issues, all of them are rather common in people with some 12-16 years of formal schooling. How do you refer to a native to Jamaica? JAMAIQUINO or JAMAICANO? Or Both? Well, this dictionary is the perfect source to do away with this kind of doubts and many more way more sophisticated.

DICCIONARIO DEL ESPAÑOL URGENTE. An amazing dictionary divided by category. You can also check other people’s queries, which might well be the same as yours. A very interesting dictionary that may appeal to everyone over and beyond specific questions.

LEGAL

THE LAW DICTIONARY is the Black’s Law Dictionary online, for free. It is English-English and even when law is not my field of action - finance/ economics is, I was told that it is tops.

OIL

OILFIELD GLOSSARY. A very good glossary to understand an industry that may be very complex.

I hope these sources of information and help might be useful to you. If you happen to know any other, please fell free to add them.

Currently, I am putting together my own Finance/ Economics dictionary that is very likely to come out in the course of 2020 in which I include hundreds of words - checked by Economists, Accountants, and Business Administrators - I gathered in my many years working at Standard & Poor’s, the American Embassy and private consultancies. I will let you know as soon as the date draws near.

THE STORY - QUALITY, “COOL”, AND STYLE FUSED ONTO A ROADMAP OF TODAY’S MEDIA

Disclaimer: I had the great pleasure of being chosen to be the translator into Spanish of the 2nd and 3rd books of the trilogy making up The Story and the co-translator of the upcoming Spanish version of the 1st book

Spanish version on LinkedIn

On writing The Story, Mario Garcíá’s unspoken purpose was, no doubt, twofold. First and foremost, to open stakeholders’ eyes to the unprecedented society’s approach to news consumption led by the ubiquitous pocket-sized computers: smartphones. Second, to take it upon himself to raise people’s awareness of this fact. 

The Story Volume I is the introduction to the visceral, fast-paced changes that are turning the news industry on its head. García not only provides an in-depth review of such changes, but also a granular, step-by-step tutorial that puts news people up to speed on how to proactively use them to their advantage. 

He begins with what might go unnoticed: a scientist-like analysis of today’s society. He masterfully dissects people’s behavior going about life and their interplay with technology and other members of the same species. He shows us how ingrained in us smartphones have become and how we use them for a wide array of activities: from listening to music to reading entire books to… keeping abreast of what is happening on the planet. 

From a philosophical standpoint, Mario García also analyzes humans’ innate reluctance to change and how they struggle, tooth and nail, to remain in their comfort zones like, for example, when he states that journalists, paradoxically, still go to newsrooms to get tomorrow’s morning paper ready instead of its digital version. García, marked by change since his landing on Earth and fully in tune with this day and age, advises breaking free from the past and embracing this current tsunami of innovation head-on. 

Through an impressive number of examples from renowned newspapers and magazines he has as clients to interviews with some of the most sought-after press people specialized in hyper topical fields, García covers a vast number of bases such as algorithms, VR, AI and so on and so forth, all written in a way in which cool, authoritative info, and lots of style play co-leading roles. 

The Story, specially written to be read entirely on our phones, is a chapter-changing book that examines a global sea-change that should be required reading for any journalist worth his salt, but it is also an awesome read for those who try to grasp these elusive, fleeting, and frantic times which are taking us by storm. It will not disappoint anyone as its author easily meets the expectations of the most demanding professionals on the scene and, by making full use of his craftsmanship as a Adjunct Professor at the most prestigious school of journalism, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he performs the feat of alchemy when driving the message home to the lay person. 

The Story is a juggernaut in which the takeaway is that future, as we perceive it, is indeed walking next to us, not ahead of us. It is this very moment we are witnessing a new world unfolding before our very eyes.  

ALDO SESSA REINVENTS HIMSELF WITH HIS SMARTPHONE: ART AND ARTIST IN THEIR BEST SHAPE EVER

As time goes by, we all tend to close ourselves off to new things. The joy our virgin minds had as we were children in this superb movie we conventionally call life seems to become rewired the wrong way as adults. But, there is an elite group that thrives on turning their reality on its head and seeks innovation as a lifestyle. 

Aldo Sessa, one world-class photographer with stellar names such as Ray Bradbury, Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and globe-scale photographer Bruce Webber among his friends over time, who hopscotches exhibits around the planet, with books published by New York houses, and with works auctioned off at blue-chip auction houses, falls into this top league of elite players. After 50-odd years as a professional photographer, Sessa is hooked on the adrenaline rush that risks, both in his art and on the scene he is socially exposed, furnish him with.

This time around, in a rather bold move, artistically and socially, he is pulling out all stops with an exhibit of stunning, jaw-dropping photographs taken with his iPhone. 

Sessa has always been into technology, way before tech went mainstream throughout the masses. His studio is a showcase of a dazzling range of photographic cameras and lenses, going from already antique pieces to the latest state-of-the-art technology manufactured by the best makers in the world. But, in his default habit of trying out new things, years ago, he stumbled upon the cameras embedded in the new gadgets and started to pay close attention to their evolution, putting each iteration through its paces. This technology, as we all know, has been progressing by leaps and bounds and his initial curiosity turned into deep, irreversible infatuation.  

For this new exhibit, unlike the hundreds he has under his belt, he used the cameras of his iPhone for photos taken from unimaginable perspectives to bestow a Daliesque surreal feel upon them. Reality and surrealism become very blurry, leading the audiences to put their senses on hold. 

This show, for which the tool the photographer avails himself of is his smartphone camera, is - as far as I know - the first ever of this kind, (decidedly Sessa’s first), which implies being a pioneer in this field and shines a spotlight on the breakthrough these awesome pieces of technology have made. But, more importantly, the striking note is that a gifted photographer with international renown is coming forward with this initiative to prove that no matter the tool you use, art is art. There is no substitute for or limits to talent. 

Treat yourself to an otherworldly fusion of contemporary art at its best and bleeding-edge technology. Do not miss this one-of-a-kind exhibit at Maman Fine Art, 2475 Libertador Ave. as from September 26, 2019.