how to say"the physics course is dry" in china

[wbbady]

how to say"the physics course is dry" in china

[jbradfor]

物理科很枯燥

[OH OH OH. I just learned 枯燥 today and now I get to use it!]

[should it be "物理科" or "物理学科"?]

[edelweis]

shouldn't it be 课 or 课程?

[SiMaKe]

物理科很枯燥

[OH OH OH. I just learned 枯燥 today and now I get to use it!]

[should it be "物理科" or "物理学科"?]

@jbradfor

I thought the term was 枯燥无味 so it's not only dry but dull? (this does not reflect a personal assessment since I find physics fascinating).

Isn't 物理科 more like physics, the academic discipline/subject, and used when the context is not clear or you want to emphasize that you are talking about the subject itself? (Google 9M hits for 物理科 vs 51M hits for 物理).

Same with 物理学科. Added clarification where context is insufficient or where talking about a course?

Also, maybe the OP could use 课 in place of 科, if he wanted to focus on the class rather than the subject. The subject may be interesting but a class can be "deadly".

So 物理课很无聊！might work also. 无聊 seems to be a popular term.

Corrections always welcome.

[jbradfor]

Agree on the 课 in place of 科. I was thinking physics in general, but the OP did explicitly say "class". I guess I was just too eager to use 枯燥 that I didn't read it correctly :mellow:

Uncertain about the 无聊 vs 枯燥(无味). My take is that 无聊 is more akin "boring" or "uninteresting", not "dry". Something can be dry but interesting. Or, at least, it can to me. But, as always, corrections welcome.

[SiMaKe]

I agree that 无聊 is "boring". However, the brevity of the OP's question left considerable latitude. Maybe he even wanted to reply to the question "hey, the water is leaking into my chemistry class, so where can I go?" "Well, the physics class is dry".

Actually, I applaud your use of 枯燥. It may be more descriptive than 无聊 and being apparently less common, a good add to the 词汇量. It also has some interesting collocations (from nciku):

这项工作枯燥乏味。

This is dull and tedious work

群众不欢迎他们枯燥无味 的宣传。

The masses don't think much of their dry and dull propaganda

as well as a standalone word.

辞章学是一门很枯燥的学问。

The study of the art of writing is a very boring subject.

[Kenny同志]

Both "无聊" and "枯燥" are commonly used, meaning boring, dull, or not interesting. "枯燥无味" is literary and might be a too big word in spoken Chinese. It usually appears in written form.

物理课很枯燥。

物理课很无聊。

Both of the above sentences are perfectly acceptable.

[Michael Zhou]

为什么没人尝试用“物理课很闷”这种解释呢？相信老外朋友说出这句话后，中国朋友肯定会震惊的。

Maybe we can try "物理课很闷"，in my opinion, this translation is more native. Your Chinese friends would be highly surprised when you say this sentence.