If you or your friends have a job, you’ll find yourself talking about holidays A LOT. “are you taking this weekend off?” ”I think I’m gonna take leave next week to take my cat to the vet”.
However, talking about taking holiday or going on vacation in Chinese can actually be a little tricky partly because most terms are separable verbs and partly because the different terms all have slightly different implications.
Gwilym and I expand on the most frequently used terms when talking about holidays 請假、放假、休假 and 度假 in this week’s QING WEN episode. We explain the key difference between the “假 jia4”s and give you loads of example sentences to show you how you can use these bits of vocab in daily conversation. If you haven’t watched it already do go check that out.
I thought i’d also write up some more terms relating to ‘holidays’, ’taking leave’ or ‘going on holiday’ here to help you really master the topic.
- 周末 週末 literally week-end
你这个周末会休假吗？ 你这个周末有放假吗？
- 假日 假日 holiDAY usually short － one or two days.
我这个假日不知道要做什么 ：（
- 法定假日 法定假日 (CN）Public Holiday (lit: Law Set Holiday)
在中国和台湾，圣诞节不是法定假日，大家只好下班后在庆祝。但是有些外商公司是会给员工放几天的假，让想回家的员工可以回家团圆。
- 国定假日 國定假日 (TW) Public Holiday (lit: Country set holiday)
在台湾，中秋节是国定假日，大家都会出来烤肉。
- 节假日 節假日 (CN) festival holidays
周末和节假日的时候，外滩简直是人山人海。
- 假期 假期 holiday period
假期太长，实在是不知道要做什么！
- 公众假期 public holidays
香港的公眾假期中西合併，中西方的大節日它們都會放假。
- 长周末 長週末 Long weekend
你这个长周末打算做什么呀？会出去玩吗？
-长假 長假 Long holiday
这个长夹我打算出国玩，好好的度个假！
- 小长假 小長假 Small Long Holiday (Brits, imagine a bank holiday weekend)
这次专门为了庆祝反法西斯胜利七十周年放了一个小长假，整整三天呢。
- 无薪假 無薪假 Non-paid leave
上个星期公司给我们两个选择，裁员或是放无薪假。我们大家只好选择被放无薪假。
- 有薪假 有薪假 Paid leave
你知道Netflix的员工可以放”无上限“的有薪育儿假吗！？
- 年假 年假 Annual Leave
你今年年假有几天呢？
- 病假 病假 Sick Leave
我明天需要请病假，我身体很不舒服。
- 事假 事假 Personal Leave
我家里有事，下个礼拜需要请4天的事假。
- 产假 產假 Maternity Leave
她下个星期要生了！她为什么还没请产假！
I hope the extended vocabulary and examples helps you talk about this subject more fluently and as always … we can’t wait to hear what you think about the topic or any questions you may have!
Fi