周末计划

Hey everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Simply Natural Chinese! I'm Tian Tian!

Hey everyone, I'm A-Jie.

A-Jie, tomorrow's the weekend. Do you have any plans?

My plan is to have no plans at all.

Huh? Does that even count as a plan?

Of course it does. I plan to lie around at home all day, and nobody better bother me.

Haha, I knew you'd say that. Is this what you do every weekend?

Pretty much. Sleep until I wake up on my own, then curl up on the couch and do absolutely nothing.

Oh my gosh, that's so boring! Isn't the weekend for going out and having fun?

That's our biggest difference. The way I see it, the weekend is for recharging — "huí xuè," like refilling your HP in a game.

"Huí xuè"? When did that word become so popular?

Young people all say it now. After a week of work you're completely drained, so the weekend is for recharging and refilling your HP.

Haha, sounds like work really wears you out.

Tired is an understatement — I'm completely squeezed dry. So the moment the weekend hits, I just want to flop down.

Flop down? You mean like a puddle of mush?

Exactly, that classic slouch — sinking into the couch, not wanting to move a single muscle.

Hahaha, I can totally picture that. But I'm the complete opposite — the moment I have nothing to do, I get restless.

I know you too well. You're the type who can't sit still for even a second.

Right! If I stay in the dorm on the weekend, I feel like the whole day was wasted.

So your weekends are usually packed solid?

Of course! Meeting friends for meals, shopping, movies — I can line up several things.

Just hearing you describe it makes me tired already.

Haha, how can you be such a homebody!

I admit it, I'm a textbook homebody. If I can avoid going out on the weekend, I absolutely won't.

So what do you actually do at home alone all day?

There's plenty to do. Catch up on sleep, binge shows, play games, order some takeout — and the day's gone just like that.

You just said "catch up on sleep" — does that mean you don't get enough during the week?

Not enough is putting it mildly — during the week I never sleep my fill. So on the weekend I pay back all the sleep I owe.

How late can you sleep?

If I'm lucky, all the way to noon.

Oh my gosh, noon! Isn't that half the day gone?

Gone is gone. For me, sleeping in is the happiest thing in the world.

Haha, but if I slept till noon I'd feel like I was really wasting the day.

See, there's another difference between us. You call it wasting, I call it enjoying.

So what about after you wake up? You can't just keep lying there, right?

Of course I keep lying there. After I wake up I laze in bed scrolling my phone, and before I know it I'm sleepy again.

Hahaha, you've really mastered the art of staying in bed.

It's an art form, you wouldn't get it.

Fine, fine, you're the expert. So what do you eat for lunch? You don't just stay hungry, do you?

When I'm hungry I just order takeout. A few taps on my phone and it's at my door in half an hour.

You never cook for yourself?

No way am I cooking on the weekend. Cooking means washing dishes too — way too much hassle.

True, it's a rare day off — who wants to lift a finger.

So takeout is my lifesaver. Living alone, ordering in is the most convenient thing.

So after the takeout, what do you do in the afternoon?

Binge shows, of course. I've saved up several series, just waiting to power through them on the weekend.

Wow, watching them all in one go — that's what they call "shuā jù," binge-watching, right?

Yeah, one episode after another, just can't stop.

I love binge-watching too, but after a while I get antsy and have to go out for a walk.

That's why you're an E type and I'm an I type — we're just not the same kind of person.

Haha, true. But staying cooped up day after day like that, don't you get bored?

Not at all — actually I feel super relaxed. No need to see anyone, no need to talk. It's great.

Your social battery is seriously low.

Pitifully low. So for me, the weekend is when I charge that battery back to full.

I'm the exact opposite — going out and having fun is how I recharge.

I get it, you're the type who gets more energized the livelier it gets.

Exactly! Last weekend I went hiking with my roommates — it was amazing!

Hiking? Going hiking in this scorching heat — doesn't that exhaust you?

Sure it's tiring, but the moment you reach the top, there's such a sense of accomplishment.

Sense of accomplishment? Nope. I'd just be drenched in sweat and gasping for air.

Haha, with your stamina, you'd probably be crying for help halfway up.

Honestly, that's entirely possible. So hiking is something I absolutely won't touch.

Besides hiking, we also checked out a trendy, Instagram-famous café.

"Dǎ kǎ" — you young people really have that phrase on your lips every single day.

Aren't you young too? You talk like you're so much older.

I'm an old fogey, remember? A bit out of touch with all your trends.

Haha, don't be so modest — snapping a photo outside a trendy shop and posting it on WeChat Moments, you do that too.

Once in a while. But I take one shot and leave, while you guys can pose for half an hour.

Right, right, right! See, you actually know quite a lot.

You pick it up by exposure — it's hard not to. The young folks in my office say it all day long.

So you never go out exploring new spots on the weekend?

That whole exploring-new-places thing has nothing to do with me. I'm too lazy to even step out of my complex gate.

Oh my gosh, your level of homebody-ness is beyond anything I imagined.

You get used to it. I think home is a hundred times more comfortable than being out.

What if a friend asks you to go out — would you go?

Depends. If it's for a meal, I might go; if it's shopping, I turn it down every time.

Why is shopping such a no-go?

Shopping is too exhausting — walking back and forth, buying nothing in the end, and my legs are dead.

Haha, that's because you don't know how to do it. The fun of shopping is discovering new things as you wander.

I just can't feel that kind of fun. When I buy things, I order online directly.

Fair enough — people like you were born for online shopping.

Exactly. A flick of the fingers and it shows up at your door — so much easier.

But online you can't see the real thing — what if it doesn't fit?

If it doesn't fit, just return it. Returns are easy now — leave it at your door and someone comes to pick it up.

You've really taken laziness to the extreme.

This isn't laziness, it's efficiency. I save all that time for sleeping.

Hahaha, fine, I can't out-argue you.

Anyway, back to weekends. Running around like that every weekend — doesn't it wear you out?

Sure, but it's the happy kind of tired. I come home, crash into bed, and the next day I'm back to full health.

"Back to full health" — nice use of the phrase. Seems like having fun is a kind of rest too.

Of course! Everyone relaxes in their own way.

Well said. You relax by going out, I relax by staying home.

But A-Jie, there's something I've been wanting to ask you.

Go ahead.

You office workers — can you really rest completely on weekends? I've heard a lot of people have to work overtime on weekends.

Ugh, that question hits a sore spot.

What's wrong? Don't tell me you work overtime on weekends too?

Not every weekend, but when a project gets busy, overtime is an everyday thing.

An everyday thing? That's just miserable!

Tell me about it. Sometimes I get called into the office first thing Saturday morning, and the whole weekend is ruined.

So you don't even have time to catch up on sleep?

Right, so when things get hectic, I'm in really bad shape.

As a student, I really can't imagine it. Having to go to the office on weekends — that's terrifying.

You'll get it once you start working. This is just daily life for us working folks.

"Dǎ gōng rén" — working folks — haha, that phrase is kind of heartbreaking.

Heartbreaking as it is, everyone still has to comfort themselves and cheer each other on with "Go, working folks!"

So is there overtime pay? You can't just work for free, right?

Depends on the company. Some pay overtime, some just give you "diào xiū" — comp time off.

What does "diào xiū" mean? Is it swapping for a day off?

Right — you work overtime on the weekend, and they give you a weekday off to make up for it. That's diào xiū.

That doesn't sound too bad — at least you get it back.

In theory, yes, but a weekday off just doesn't have that weekend feeling of relaxation.

Why's that? Isn't rest the same either way?

It's not. On a weekday everyone else is working, you're the only one off, you can't get friends to hang out — it's pretty lonely.

Now that you put it that way, it's true. Being off alone with no one around really is no fun.

So yeah, comp time off sounds great but it's not actually that sweet.

There's an even more outrageous one — I've heard it's called "bǔ bān." Is that real?

It's real. To piece together a long holiday, you have to work the weekends before and after — that's "make-up work days."

Oh my gosh, you have to pay off a debt just to take a long holiday? That's such a rip-off!