1. A long time ago, when you decided that you liked foreign languages, you thought one of these would be useful and probably bought one.
很久之前当你决定要学习一门外语时，会认为这些字典很重要，可能还买了一本回来。
2. But quickly realised that searching for words you don’t know online is actually a lot quicker.
但你很快意识到在网上查生词要快得多。
3. While you may never open that dictionary, you know that remembering vocabulary is the hardest thing in the world. But that swear word you learnt when you were 10 has never been forgotten.
尽管从没翻开过字典，你知道记单词是世界上最难的事。可是却一直没忘记你10岁时学过的骂人话。
4. You also now know the shortcut to every accent.
现在你知道每种口音的捷径。
5. You also know the quickest, and cheapest, places to buy translations of the books you were meant to read in the original language.
你知道在哪里能花最少时间买到最便宜的译本——尽管你的最初计划是读原版。
6. But you can probably spin off a couple of recited lines from a French book.
但你也可能从一本法语书里学到几行美句背下来。