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中文
Work & office 100
100
phrases
The working day
10
上班 and 下班 - going on and off shift - are the words the working day is built from, and neither means "work" in the abstract. 打卡 is to clock in, literally "hit the card", and it survives as a verb even where the card has become an app. 加班 is overtime and carries no surprise.
Taking on work
10
这个交给你 - "I'm handing this to you" - is how work is assigned, and 交给我吧 is how you volunteer for it. Note 我手上事情很多 - literally "there is a lot in my hands" - which declines extra work by stating capacity rather than unwillingness, and is therefore hard to argue with.
Meetings
10
开会 is to hold a meeting - the verb 开 again, the same one that opens doors and drives cars. 我补充一点 - "let me add one point" - is the polite way into a discussion already underway. 散会 ends the meeting and is said by whoever is chairing it, not by anyone else.
Reporting and consulting
10
汇报 is to report upward and carries the hierarchy inside the word - you 汇报 to a manager, never sideways to a peer. 我想跟你商量 - I'd like to discuss this with you - is the horizontal equivalent. 需要你批准 asks for approval, which in Chinese offices is a formal step rather than a nod.
Deadlines
10
明天之前 - before tomorrow - puts the marker after the time word, which is the reverse of English. 时间来不及 returns the 来不及 you met in the duration set: there isn't enough time to make it. 别拖到最后 - don't drag it to the end - is advice everyone gives and nobody takes.
With colleagues
10
我请你喝奶茶 - I'll buy you a bubble tea - is the small currency of Chinese office friendship, cheap enough to accept without owing anything. 辛苦你了 appears again here, sideways this time, between peers. 别放在心上 - don't take it to heart - repairs a small friction.
With your manager
10
请示 - to seek instruction from above - has no casual English equivalent and describes a real step in Chinese working life: you do not decide, you go and ask. 请您过目 asks a superior to cast an eye over something, and 过目 - "pass the eye" - is deferential without being servile.
Business correspondence
10
抄送 is to cc - literally "copy and send" - and 请查收附件 asks the reader to check the attachment. 请指正 - "please correct me" - closes a document sent to someone senior and is formulaic rather than sincere; nobody expects corrections, and everyone writes it.
Time off
10
请假 is to request leave and is always framed as asking, never as taking. 调休 is a Chinese institution with no English name: swapping a working day for a rest day, usually to bridge a public holiday, which is why Chinese holidays are often followed by a working Saturday.
Careers
10
跳槽 - literally "jumping the trough", an image borrowed from livestock moving to a better feeding place - means changing jobs, and it is neutral rather than disloyal. 工作和生活要平衡 states the work-life balance that 内卷, in the slang section, describes the absence of.
Related categories
Weather & seasons 100
Phone & messaging 100
Accommodation 100
School & study 100
Home & daily life 100
Body & health 100
Hobbies & leisure 100
Internet & phone 100
中文