sleeping with her head resting on her arms on the desk
- Thread starter hly2004
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Random1
Senior Member
English - USA
The first thing that comes to mind is "(she was) sleeping during class." It is not as awkward, but also not as specific. "Sleeping with her head resting on her arms on the desk" is extremely awkward when spoken.
Random1
Senior Member
English - USA
Careful here, weeping means crying. Crying is different than sleeping. Sleeping does not imply a mood, crying implies that she is very sad.
Thanks, but how to describe the scence either crying or sleeping on her desk in another word or phrase (as I mentioned in the first post)?
bouncy.bouncy
Senior Member
American/British English
"sleeping with her head in/on her arms on the desk" is about as concise as you're gonna get without losing any descriptiveness.
Kenny Chang
Senior Member
Chinese(Traditional)
Hello, everyone.
About this picture, can I say the man is "resting his head and arms" on the table? Or is "resting his head in his arms" better?
Also, in class, if a student does this, can I, as a teacher, say "Please don't put your head and arms on the table"?
Because I think there's no specific expression, everyone would describe it in a different way/wording. Are my sentences (the blue ones) idiomatic to you? Thank you.
About this picture, can I say the man is "resting his head and arms" on the table? Or is "resting his head in his arms" better?
Also, in class, if a student does this, can I, as a teacher, say "Please don't put your head and arms on the table"?
Because I think there's no specific expression, everyone would describe it in a different way/wording. Are my sentences (the blue ones) idiomatic to you? Thank you.
That is my opinion too.
Kenny Chang
Senior Member
Chinese(Traditional)
But isn't there a most common one? The one that people use the most or hear the most, or the one that will first come to your mind when you want to describe this action?
I'm not a teacher but if I were, I'd probably just say "Sit up straight and pay attention!"
Why would you even want to discriminate specifically against the posture of the girl in your second picture? She might be shortsighted or have back problems!
Thinking back to my own school days, I can say that some of the chairs they provided for us children were very uncomfortable and it was imperative to find various seating positions to be able to endure 4-6 hours of (sometimes rather boring) lessons.
Why would you even want to discriminate specifically against the posture of the girl in your second picture? She might be shortsighted or have back problems!
Thinking back to my own school days, I can say that some of the chairs they provided for us children were very uncomfortable and it was imperative to find various seating positions to be able to endure 4-6 hours of (sometimes rather boring) lessons.
Kenny Chang
Senior Member
Chinese(Traditional)
I have no idea why you said that! I didn't discriminate anyone. Did you see any discriminative words I used?I'm not a teacher but if I were, I'd probably just say "Sit up straight and pay attention!"
Why would you even want to discriminate specifically against the posture of the girl in your second picture? She might be shortsighted or have back problems!
Thinking back to my own school days, I can say that some of the chairs they provided for us children were very uncomfortable and it was imperative to find various seating positions to be able to endure 4-6 hours of (sometimes rather boring) lessons.
I just wanted to describe that picture!
velisarius
Senior Member
British English (Sussex)
I too think a teacher would be more likely to tell the girl to sit up straight than to describe what she is doing (sitting slumped over her desk).
Glasguensis
Signal Modulation
English - Scotland
There are more than 400 million native speakers of English. I don’t think anyone is capable of saying what phrase each one would choose.
You implied that there was something negative about the girl's behavior: something wrong with resting her chin on her arms. But the young girl isn't eating, or writing a note, or talking to a friend, or chewing gum, or playing with a smartphone, or sleeping, or doing anything else that is improper for a student to do in a school class.
You discrimated by saying that her behavior was unusual enough to have a common expression for it.
Why would I want to describe this action? That has never happened.
Kenny Chang
Senior Member
Chinese(Traditional)
I think that's the cultural difference. We don't allow students to sit like this in class, even if they do pay attention. On the one hand, it is not good for their eyes (close to the textbook if they want to read/write). On the other hand, that position easily makes them sleepy. And not just for teachers, parents think the same. That's why the word to express this action is so common in Chinese. I guess both teachers and parents in the USA are more liberal.
Well, that's how the language works, isn't it? To describe! I try to use English to describe something I don't know how to say. That's all.
I agree. It must be a cultural difference.
For that matter, we can't assume that she should be doing anything (reading, writing, etc.) that she isn't doing. That does not describe the picture.
In fact, saying she is a student, in a class, with a teacher, is your assumption. It is not part of the picture. Maybe she is at a table, in the school library. Maybe she is at a table at home.
We got no context, so we cannot assume that the teacher is teaching and the student should be paying attention.
For that matter, we can't assume that she should be doing anything (reading, writing, etc.) that she isn't doing. That does not describe the picture.
In fact, saying she is a student, in a class, with a teacher, is your assumption. It is not part of the picture. Maybe she is at a table, in the school library. Maybe she is at a table at home.
Cagey
post mod (English Only / Latin)
English - US
That is how I would describe the man in that picture. And if you told me that someone was "resting his head in/on his arms", I would think of a position somewhat like the picture although I would think he was sitting facing the table, and not sideways as in the picture. I think this is a fairly standard way of describing that position.
As for the second picture, I can't think of a standard way to describe that position. Like the others, I would probably ask her to "Please sit straight." If I wanted to describe that position, I would say "She is slouched forward, resting her chin on her arms." I agree that other people might describe that position differently, and I am not certain that people who heard me would imagine the position I was trying to describe.
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Exactly!I know many people only think of racial or gender discrimination when they hear the word discrimination. But actually, whenever you're singling out one person or a group of people based on their common characteristic or behaviour and treat them differently than others, you're actually discriminating against them. Maybe you don't even mean to do that, but if those people feel discriminated against, they can file a complaint or even make a police report and such discrimination claims are taken very seriously these days.
To avoid that problem altogether, it's better for a teacher to address the whole class and use a general phrase like "Sit up straight!" or "Sit properly!" and it will cover any kind of unwanted sitting position.