上 in Pimsleur III Unit 4

[Neil-san]

Shàng (上) appears to be used in Pimsleur III Unit 4 to mean "study" as well as for "last" in "last week." It makes sense as "previous" but I don't understand how it works for "study." What contextual connections am I missing?

Neil-san

[roddy]

Have you got a sentence or phrase? I can see how a usage such as 上课, or 上大学- attend class, attend university - might cause confusion, but I can't imagine using it directly as study.

[Ferno]

Okay I found what he's talking about..

Narrarator: He's planning to study...

Speaker: Ta1 da3suan4 shang4

Narrarator: He's planning to study at a Mandarin langauge school.

Speaker: Ta1 da3suan4 shang4 yi1 suo3 pu3tong1hua4 xue2xiao4.

[roddy]

Hmm, the 上 doesn't really mean study here, at least not until you have the ‘school' bit to relate it to. Until you hear that, he could be going to the toilet, upstairs, etc. It would be less confusing if they used 'go to' or 'attend' rather than study.

[Ferno]

yeah they kind of translate things holistically - sometimes they explain the literal meaning ie that shang4 di4tie2 is literally "on the subway" maybe they didn't mention it in the context of attending school

[Neil-san]

Thank you! To "go" or "attend" meshes better with the definitions in Wenlin - and it works in the Pimsleur sentences as well. The insistance on "study" was confusing however.

I am beginning to realize that this sort of translation problem can come up quite a bit when approached from the English side.

Neil-san