I've been studying and practicing English on and off for a good 13 years.
To be honest, I never really used a bilingual dictionary. My mother was a translator so I simply asked her what a word meant when I didn't know.
Once you've built up your vocabulary to a certain point, learning new words become surprisingly easy. I learned most of my vocabulary through exposition and most importantly
in context.
If you're worried about not understanding the definition, I would like to suggest a good dictionary:
Collins COBUILD Dictionary
The definitions provided in this dictionary are simplified on purpose. It's very easy to understand what the word means. Some definitions lack precision but the simple definitions make up for it, I found.
As for the corrections:
" It's been several months since I
entered
(
joined
) the forum but
i (
I) never posted so far..."
I would say either;
"I never posted before"
or
"I've never posted so far"
Be vigilant about "I". It's a simple mistake to correct and most people write "i" instead of "I" out of laziness. It really cripples a message when "i" is present instead of "I".