Abstain from electronic dictionaries

Abstain from electronic dictionaries

Easy Come, easy go

The premise for the title is if you REALLY want to learn English well in the long run. Please keep this premise in mind because I will encourage you to use electronic dictionaries in the case

you desperately need to know the meaning for the moment and you don't care about it afterward.

There are two implicit merits of using dictionaries under the disguise of purely wasting of time.

To any beginner, finding a word in dictionary is nothing but tedious work. However, the time you spent in searching the word is in fact the process of memorizing it. Recall what you usually do when you check out a word in dictionary. Repeat the word in your mind again and again, right? This is the only effective way to memorize! Take my aunt for an ultimately successful example, she spent less then five seconds to pin down a word and almost memorize it in the process.

From psychological point of view, the more effort you put into a habit at the beginning, the higher probabilities you will stick to it and won't quit easily

Compared to using electronic dictionaries , it takes time and effort to look up a new word in dictionary. However, this seemly waste of time turn out to be an effective way to memorize the word and a magical trick to stick yourself to learn English! Looking back, I found that all my English teachers (from elementary school to college) used paper-back dictionaries. Is this coincident? Is this also true for YOUR English teachers?