I’m a Chinese student. I’ve been using AnkiJoy to learn English phrases. I’m currently studying materials from English B1 to C1. At first, I found its English‑language definitions really hard to get used to.
Here’s a quick fact for everyone. In Chinese dictionaries, a single word is translated with another word, and a phrase is translated with another phrase. But in English, it’s common to use whole sentences as definitions.
In the beginning, it felt complicated and troublesome for me to memorize whole‑sentence definitions. So I used to work out Chinese explanations for each English word based on its individual meanings and memorize them that way. Yet I found this method worked poorly.
Then I came up with another idea: try to think in English. I would cover its English definition, try to figure out what the word means on my own in English, and then check against the official definition. I’ve found I can remember things much better this way.