"Go home" is a slang, it means you are not suppose to be here. When you tell the English speaker(s) " go home" it means you are ordering the English speakers go back to where they came from. It is a rude languge to kick them out from China. If the English speakers tell you " go home" while you travel to their countries, you should know what they mean to you. If your employer tell you "go home" means he/she kicks you out from work. If the teacher tell you " go home" means he/she kicks you out from his/her class. I go home, we go home etc., it is a sentence follows the grammatical rules. Here, go home is not a slang meaning going home. "Come home" have no other meaning other than comming home, "home" is the place where you live.

Mind if I have a go? :) Ok, to me the basic idea is that going=leaving, and coming=arriving. However, as fdmaxey points out, it depends on where the speaker is. Here's a couple of additional points: When you say "I'm going (home, somewhere)", the implication is that you're leaving where you are, or leaving the company you are with, even if you don't actually state that. When using "to come", it also implies that a meeting will take place, or you'll be together with people. Eg. when you say "are you coming to the beach?" it suggests that your friend will meet with you. When you say "are you going to the beach?", you have to add "...with us?" to include yourself/selves. Good question! It's one of those tricky uses of English which is common but not easily explained.

Well, for starters, the verbs 'to go' and 'to come' simply mean something else. 'Going' is just generic here. You might tell your friends on the phone: "I'm going home for Christmas." But when you're talking to your mother, you'd say: "I'm coming home for Christmas." In this context, 'coming' can really only be used when the person you're going to is already there. Like: "I'm coming to the mall." You can only say that to, say, your friends, when they are already there. Or "I'm coming over!" Or combined (still talking to your friends, who are already at the mall): "I'm coming to the mall, but I am going to the drug store first."

It depends on where the speaker is. If I am away from home and I decide to return (回家，回去） I would say I am going home. If I am talking on the phone to someone in my family, I would use their frame of reference - "I'm coming home tomorrow". (回来） In Chinese, I believe the conventions are more strict. It would always be from the standpoint of the speaker, not the person being spoken to. Someone can correct me on this.

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