Person Friday & 菩提樹 by 北京天使合唱團

文:Person Friday by Tyhongau & 歌:菩提樹 by 北京天使合唱團

 

For the blink of an eye, I have landed at this cold country for almost 30 years. Remembering the first month of arrival, I was looking for a good job every day, because I used to be kind of a professional in my home land. Every day I hit the glass wall. Those famed corporations/companies rejected my resume as “lack of local experience” for an excuse. I had to use the service of a government-operated namely “manpower office”. For working in an office 80% of the jobs posted were for “persons Friday”. I didn’t know what were the responsibilities of a “person Friday”. I quickly wrote down the job number and was led to see a consultant. She was blonde, young, beautiful and friendly. I asked her what I should do when being hired as a “person Friday”. She grinned at me and said: “Have you read a novel called “Robinson Crusoe”? There was a character called Friday in the book. OMG! One had to work as Friday to repay a kindness to the master: to run all errands. Rent was due soon. I accepted the job and quit after a year when the Master (owner) asked me to change four winter tires for his Mercedes. BTW, job title as “person Fridays” is now obsolete in Canada.

眨眼間我已來了這天寒地凍的國家快30年了。回想初來的第一個月, 天天到 處想找文房工作(在原居地我也算的是專業人仕) 。天天都碰壁, 多數好的公司嫌我 “沒有本地經驗”來做藉口。 沒辦法，隻好在政府設的人力部“Man Power”找工作。隻見人力部大部份 文房的工作空缺都是需要做“星期五” 工作的。不知person friday是啥工作， 抄了個號數，便去見人力部的一個女顧問。問她這Person Friday究竟需要做什麽工作。那滿頭金髮美麗的洋妞子很和善，笑著問我:” 你有看過[魯賓遜漂流記] 這本小說嗎? 裏麵不就是有一個叫“Friday的”。 我的天，原來這工作是要像 “星期五” 報恩一樣地對主人工作: 什麽都要做。沒辦法，房租快到期了，隻好照做。這勞什子星期五工做了快一年。當主人要我替他的Mercedes 換上4條冬輪胎時我就辭職了。 注: 現在加國政府已不許用這名詞去僱用工人。