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Learning
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中文
School & study 100
100
phrases
In class
10
节 is the measure word for class periods: 今天有几节课, how many periods today. 上课 and 下课 mirror 上班 and 下班 exactly - the same up-and-down pair, applied to lessons. 我没听懂 admits you did not follow, and 听懂 is a compound of hearing plus understanding, which is the honest distinction.
With the teacher
10
老师 is used as a term of address on its own - 老师，我有问题 - the way "teacher" is not in English. It is also extended well beyond schools, to anyone whose expertise you are acknowledging. 我需要补课 asks for a catch-up lesson, 补 meaning to patch or make good.
Homework
10
交 - to hand in - is the verb for submitting work, the same one that assigns it in 交给你. 这道题 uses 道 as the measure word for a question or problem, which is worth knowing because it is not 个. 能借我笔记吗 asks to borrow notes, an exchange that runs on trust everywhere.
Exams
10
考砸了 - "I bombed it" - uses 砸, to smash, and is exactly as colloquial as it sounds. 复习 is to revise, literally "repeat study", and 我还没复习 is the sentence students say to each other before every exam whether or not it is true.
Results
10
及格 is to pass - the threshold, usually sixty out of a hundred - and 没及格 is to fail. 我考了八十分 states a score with 分, points, and the whole set assumes a hundred-point scale, which is how Chinese schooling marks almost everything.
How you study
10
背单词 - to memorise vocabulary - uses 背, literally "to carry on the back", which is the standard verb for rote learning and tells you something about how it feels. 学以致用 is a four-character phrase meaning study in order to apply, and it is the argument for a site like this one.
Campus life
10
食堂 is the canteen and is central to Chinese campus life in a way no English word quite captures - cheap, enormous and open most of the day. 我打工赚学费 - I work part-time to earn tuition - uses 打工, the same word Japanese borrowed, for casual labour.
Classmates
10
同班 - same class - is one of the strongest social bonds in Chinese school life, and 班长 - the class monitor - is a real position with real duties. 我们组队吧 proposes forming a team, 组队 being a compound used for everything from group projects to online games.
Applying and moving on
10
考研究生 - to sit the graduate entrance exam - names a specific and enormous event in Chinese life: a single national examination taken by millions on one weekend in December. 我被录取了 - I've been admitted - uses 被 to mark the passive, which Chinese uses far more sparingly than English.
Learning a language
10
声调总是错 - "my tones are always wrong" - is the complaint every learner of Chinese eventually makes, and it is worth saying aloud because saying it is itself tone practice. 我不敢开口 - I don't dare open my mouth - names the real obstacle, which is nerve rather than knowledge.
Related categories
Weather & seasons 100
Phone & messaging 100
Accommodation 100
Work & office 100
Home & daily life 100
Body & health 100
Hobbies & leisure 100
Internet & phone 100
中文