Interesting! So is "I'll go first" an expression you would use in Czech?

To me, "I'll go first" sounds like something that would most likely be said in a situation where a group of people had to decide who would dare be the first to go, like testing out a rickety old suspension bridge in the Andes, or going down a rope into a dark cave.

Since you are talking about last weekend, you can't use 祝.

Besides, I think the 4th tone can sound very sharp to a non-Chinese ear. "Na, wo zou le, bai bai" and "Ok, then I go. Bye" can be said gently in both languages.

For example the voice of woman in elementary lesson "It’s cold, wear more clothes" stay gentle and soft despite of all the fourth tones of this dialogue. It's a real pleasure to hear her voice.

Thanks a lot for this great lesson.

L.

you made me thinking about this deeper. In fact, we don't mention the word "first" in the dialog's case in Czech, we say only "I'll go" or more probably "I'll go then" but surely there's the verb "to go" included.

I think the reason why I was mistakenly including the "first" was that my brain seems to be half working in Japanese and Japanese way of saying the sentence would be very close to its Chinese counterpart: じゃあ、先に行くね。 Jaa, saki ni iku ne. I'll go first then.

Human's brain certainly is a strange mechanism. 笑

Anyway, from the above example about testing a suspension bridge I can see now that there are also times when you can use "I'll go first" in English. It makes a complete sense, thank you.

I passed a shop on the way home with a sign [什么什么]加工店 shénme shénme jiāgōngdiàn (something something 加工 shop) but I that this is different again?  Some kind of processing going on?  

“加班 jia1 ban1" is the word for "work overtime”, it's a verb.

你昨天加班了吗？

"加工“ is a verb which means " to process".

I'm kind of disappointed, I thought there was something in there about extra work. Changye - if 加工 is a noun in the 'process' sense - would it be the 'process' itself? I have seen it used as an adjective 加工的. It must be an adjective in 加工店 - or is that a noun? (Here i am asking you about English grammar.)

加工店 how long are those open?

It seems  chinese all work overtime and have no choice about working overtime..i like to have weekends free

好像中国人都要加班。我老婆每星期都不得不加班。我不喜欢在周末工作。

Hǎoxiàng Zhōngguórén dōu yào jiābān. Wǒ lǎopo měi xīngqī dōu bùdébù jiābān. Wǒ bù xǐhuan zài zhōumò gōngzuò.

"Processed cheese" is translated as “加工奶酪” in Chinese.

下班晚了 - Finished work later than normal.

下班早了 - Finished work earlier than normal.

And of course the reverse, when starting work:

上班晚了 - Started work later than normal.

上班早了 - Started work earlier than normal.

Another useful pair of phrases:

你下班什么时候？ - What time do you finish work?

你上班什么时候？ - What time do you start work?

If you need me to add pinyin, let me know..

“周愉快” or does that just sound weird?

using it when you only see someone once a week

When you only see someone once a week, you can say, "祝你好运！Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn！"

三八妇女节的时候老板送给我太太一些特百惠 (Tupperware). 使用说明书里他说： 菜果醋，肉松，包菜。。都能为您加工，先来专卖店常常看！ 原料自购， 加工安全，美味放心！

I have a lot of tupperware containers at home, but I've never cared about its Chinese name before. “特百惠” is a NICE translation, hehe.

请可以说明一点？ 我不明白。 外什么一周一次?

..hmm,good word mate,don't think I've struck it before.Is that common in the US?...I see it's from German and means spirit of the time.

So what do the telecommuters say?

I'm studying Korean as well and in Korean it would be "나 먼저 갈게요" or "I'll go first."

Is the word for "first" in Japanese kind of unique to that phrase?

I agree about "I'll go first" making sense in English in the right context, but at least, the way it's used in Korean and Chinese, like when you're going to leave a place before other people, would sound really weird.

“先, お先に, 먼저” should not be translated as "first" in this case. They are "early" or "before you". To put it another way, they are something like the opposite of "after you" in English. Actually, I felt very strange when I learned the English phrase for the first time. At that time, I wondered why they didn't say "before me".

PS. Probably the English word "first" can be translated as “首先 (shou3xian1)”，“最初に (saisho-ni)”, and “우선”.

Actually, I don't think it's really possible to translate "先" or "먼저" As they're used in these expressions in Chinese and Korean. I'm not sure about the Japanese word because I've never heard it used in context - I regretfully don't speak any Japanese. My "I'll go first" was a literal "word for word" translation. The phrase, or any translation of it is not usually said in English in the same situations. We'd never say "I'm leaving before you" or "I'm leaving first."

If you're leaving before other people you'd simply say "Well, I'm off", "I have to get going", or something similar.