I bought an English-Japanese dictionary for the first time when I entered junior high school. I was 13 years old at that time. One of my English teachers was a Spanish father. I felt a kind of exotic air in the class though I didn't have any interest in English. If I had had a keen interest in English or other foreign languages at that time, I wouldn't have so much difficulty as I have now to learn languages. My brain must have had better memory retention when I was younger.
I'm trying to write various kinds of articles now, for example diaries, essays, kind of editorials or opinions about current affairs, notes of journeys, introductory essays about my town, my hospital, my family, my hobbies,etc. I'm still learning English and I frequently make mistakes, but fortunately those articles are corrected by a teacher on the internet. Anyway I still use this old dictionary.
This dictionary was the most popular and the best-selling one when I was a junior high school student. After many years, that dictionary became well-thumbed and looked dirty, so I bought a new one which was a revised version of the same dictionary. Besides, I bought an electronic dictionary a couple of years ago for portable use. I thought those dictionaries were enough for reading and writing English for a long time.
The other day I found an amazing dictionary. I'll show you inside of it. I checked some phrases that I'm familiar with and I ascertained that the explanations of each phrase were precise and right. The dictionary is color printed and contains many illustrations and photos, but isn't thick. It is very comfortable to look things up in this dictionary. Moreover, you don't see the shadows of the back page. The technique of printing must have developed remarkbly during these last few decades. I'm enjoying writing this entry and looking up English words in this dictionary.
(Vocabulary)
keen (仕事・勉強などに) 熱心な, 意欲的な〈知性などが〉 鋭い, 〈頭が〉 切れる
keen students 熱心な学生
Greg has a keen mind. グレッグは頭が切れる．
retention 記憶力 保留, 維持 (水分･熱などの) 保持力 退職［退学］防止
best-selling (本・アルバムなどが) ベストセラーの
well-thumbed 〈本・雑誌などが〉 手あかのついた, 使い込まれた
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