English-Chinese --> English - Chinese/English --> English - English
To really learn the English well, you have to use English/English dictionary
to look up your new words.
There are several merits for using English/English dictionary
1. You're not looking up / learning one word at a time anymore
The good thing about using English/English dictionary is you learn more
than the word you're looking at. If the explanation is also in English, you will
learn some more from the explanation more or less. Besides, you understand
the relation between words.
2. Have the exact meaning of the word.
I don't think there is perfect translation between two languages. Whatever
meaning you get from Chinese translation. You lose a small portion of meaning
because of the translation. It will be clear if you think from the other way around.
Imagine you're learning Chinese, will the Chinese or the English explanation be
more precise?
3. Prevent the bad habits of translating back into Chinese while reading and
listening in English.
The reason why I can't read fast when I was in high school is I have to translate
all the sentences back into Chinese to understand the meaning. That's huge
waste of time and inefficient. To combat this bad habit, the best way is you don't
know the Chinese meaning of the word at all. In this way, you have no way to
translate it back in Chinese. How? -- You learn the word by English dictionary!
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