【十周年征文】Seek and you will find

Engdict

In this article, I want to share with you how I ran into pdawiki, an online treasury with rich resources for learning English (and other languages), became a member of this lively community, and obtained several electronic dictionaries which are absolutely my favorites. Hope it can help some new comers.
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: ~! l( V* ]+ LMy encounter with pdawiki was purely accidental. It all started from taking a free English class with Going for Gold (英语PK台) at Radio Beijing International. I have been learning English from Going for Gold for years, and this year, it rolled out a brand new class, teaching listeners to build up English vocabulary by studying the roots, prefixes and suffixes of words. The hosts use Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (OALECD) to teach the meaning and usage of each word. In the lecture note sent out to subscribers after each class, for each word, a card illustrates how to break it down into prefix, root and suffix. And beside that card, a snapshot of the electronic version of the dictionary about that word is shown.  Unfortunately, due to the limited size of the snapshot, quite often, it only covers part of the meanings and usages of a word.  Since I did not have the dictionary the hosts use, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of each word, in addition to studying the content of the snapshot carefully, I had to use a few other dictionaries from Youdao Dictionary simultaneously, including Collins and Longman, comparing, differentiating, and summarizing the meanings and usages of the word. This took a lot of time, actually so much time that after a few lectures, I could not bear with it anymore. I felt that OALECD was better than the dictionaries I had access to, in that its layout is more user friendly, and especially in that it lists the various usages of each word in a very organized way. I decided to acquire my own OALECD.
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5 a* I- U* D( i7 x  @7 EFirst, I searched online. However, to my disappointment, I only found the 8th Edition in traditional Chinese format available in the App Store on iPhone, and there was no electronic version for PC, even on Amazon, although I was ready to pay for it. I generally prefer to read on PC because my eyes get tired soon when I read on a cell phone. It occurred to me that sometime last year, I got quite a few electronic dictionaries from Xiabange Soaked in English (下班哥泡英语), a WeChat public account. But I had never opened these dictionaries. So I found that folder, and there was the 7th Edition of OALECD! Unexpectedly, all the files were in mdd and mdx format, file extensions I had never seen before.  
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( a( D* b" Y/ X/ [2 ~# pSo I searched again, and found a post at Zhihu, which elaborated on how to download, install and use a software called Mdict for dictionaries based on mdx files. I followed the instructions there and successfully opened the 7th Edition of OALECD. However, the user interface was quite disappointing: the English and Chinese characters were laid out on alternating lines, but there was barely any line spacing. What is more, the Chinese characters were so huge that at a glance, almost all one could see was Chinese translations. It would be too arduous to use such a dictionary. I remembered that the Zhihu post mentioned a dictionary library at a certain website which had a weird domain name. Rechecking the post, I found the website mentioned was pdawiki.com. The address seemed strange to me at the beginning, but after I figured out what it represented, i.e., personal digital assistant, it started to make sense. Logging onto pdawiki took me to a treasury of electronic dictionaries. There I found the 8th Edition of OALECD with perfect interface for PC, created by Langheping. The best thing is that anyone, after registering at pdawiki, can download this dictionary immediately, no score or seniority level required. I was amazed that there are people who love learning English and at the same time can write code and create electronic dictionaries themselves! Furthermore, they are willing to share their fruit of hard labor, sometimes totally for free, like Langheping! I must salute him here. Some other users made small improvements on his dictionary, such as making sure that different forms of a verb such as past tense, past and present participles are displayed. Langheping also extracted idioms and phrases from OALECD and made a separate dictionary, which is also shared for free.
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8 |1 |- O' m9 I6 }) Q/ S! O6 ZFrom the Mdict dictionary resource pool, I also downloaded the Oxford Collocations English-Chinese Dictionary (OCECD). The good thing about this dictionary is that by clicking on the word entry on a page, you can show or hide the Chinese translations. Another dictionary I want to have is thesaurus. Any English learner knows how important/difficult it is to discern the subtle differences among synonyms. I did find Oxford Thesaurus of English (OTE) available, posted by cquark, but in order to have access to it, my reading permission level has to be at least 30, which  means 200 scores. And what I had was far from enough. In the past week, I have been signing in each day, staying active online, and replying to posts. Hopefully I can get the OTE soon.
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With the advanced learner’s dictionary (OALECD) and the collocations dictionary (OCECD) I have downloaded, and the thesaurus (OTE) I will have soon, most of my present dictionary needs can be satisfied. BTW, I also found several dictionaries on roots, prefixes and suffixes at pdawiki, which will definitely be nice complements to my vocabulary class at Going for Gold. Thank all the users who shared the dictionaries and/or improved them! Also thank pdawiki administrations for creating and maintaining such a dynamic community! I am thinking about my own ways of contributing to it.  
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When I reflect on how I found pdawiki, get involved in this vibrant forum, and got/will get the dictionaries I truly cherish, I realize that if you really want something, the most important thing is to start looking for it. You may not get it right away, but during your quest, you are sure to come across something new and interesting, and one thing leads to another, and thus the rich possibilities of life unfold in front of you. This is how we seize opportunities and grow. Just as the Bible says, “Seek and you will find.”
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sabrina2111

楼主谢得真好啊！讨厌的回帖字数限制！

Engdict

Thank you guys for your encouragement! I am thinking of doing something meaningful for pdawiki in the future.