我本来想着自己捞鱼的
“I planned to catch the fish myself,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
有面子
“in front of your coworkers.”
我 本来想着 自己捞鱼 的
“I planned to catch the fish myself,”
但是的确抓不着
“but I really couldn't,”
“I did want to do this myself to impress you, but it turned out to be too hard.”
Preemptively stating one's original good intentions softens the loss of face when admitting inability to perform a task.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
originally thought / had intended to
Use this phrase to introduce an initial intention that was altered or thwarted by later events.
to scoop up or catch fish
A common spoken collocation for catching fish using a net or hands.
Affirms the speaker's original stance or intent with slight explanatory emphasis.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“So you went out to catch these fireflies, huh?”
“So you're playing the pig to outwit the tiger.”
“I was planning to catch a big fish.”