What natives feel about 下課 ? We were thought 下課 means: class dismissed, class finished. Another vocabulary says: class is over (source: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/wordsearch.php?searchMode=C&word=%E4%B8%8B%E8%AA%B2&search=Search ) But today teacher said that between second and third hour of a class, which had the same effect as when he is saying 休息一下. So question is (a) does 下課 mean "break" as well? (b) what do you feel when hearing 下課, is there difference or you just get it from the context? How can you distinguish when teacher means "break/rest" and when he says really "class is over"? Because two months ago, when I heard 下課 I just went out from the class, now I rather check what other people do ^-^" P.S.: I am the only foreigner at whole faculty :-DThanks for all responses so far. So I'd like to add more explanation: We have practical training in the laboratory, professor leaves away at every break usually with words "下課". Two times it happened that 3 hours class (training) was finished after first hour, so when I am not sure I usually ask: Is the class really over? (to murongfeixue: as the only foreigner at the faculty, I do care about manners, so don't worry, such faux pas I have never done ;-) ) The question is still: What do natives feel about 下課 ? It seems when the class was finished after first hour of three total, from all of your answers I made conclusion that the teacher had to say in Chinese to the students something like - "enough for today" or so. From your answers it seems that from hearing "下課" only, there is no way how to find out if it's really the end after first hour (which happened in my case twice, as I mentioned before) or just break.