@dictionary work

When we learn learning foreign languages, sometimes we read from a book and look up in the dictionary the words that we don't know, and try to figure out what the text means. This is called dictionary work.

This sort of work is useful sometimes. But tring to do it too soon is worse than not useful, it will demoralize you.

Whatever language you want to learn, you are not going to learn anything that way if you have to look up in the dictionary more than one word of every ten. So beginners should keep clear of it and focus instead on classes, tutorials and grammars.

Also, this approach works better with some languages that with others. It works well for people learning Italian, English or Finnish, but badly with Sanskrit, because of the lack of spaces in Sanskrit spelling and because most current bilingual dictionaries suck big time.

So two pieces of advice for you:

(1) Don't try to do any dictionary word too soon. Wait until you have learnt enough in other ways.

(2) If / when you decide to start doing it, start with Sir Monier's translation of the nalopAkhyAnam नलोपाख्यानम्. An elegant tool for a more civilized age.