流行美語: to slack off ; peon

今天Michael提前下班，在路上碰到李華。李華會學到兩個常用語： to slack off和peon。

L: 嘿， Michael, 你今天怎麽這麽早就下班啦？

M: Well, this is the holiday season, so everyone at work is slacking off. No one minds if I leave early.

L: 你說是因為過節，早下班沒人會介意，而且辦公室裏每個人都在slacking off? 那是做什麽呀？

M: (Chuckles) I said everyone is "slacking off". "To slack off" means just the opposite of "being busy". "To slack off" means "to not work hard".

L: 噢，to slack off的意思和"努力工作"剛好相反。我懂了，你是說，因為過節，所以同事們都比較放鬆-- Everyone at work is slacking off. 可是，Michael, 你自作主張提前下班，是不是有一點太slack off了呢？

M: Oh, I certainly don't worry about it, because I noticed even my boss is slacking off. He left even earlier than I did.

L: 你們公司老板比你走得還早，看來，他比你更加slack off。說得也是，馬上就要新年了，連我也覺得挺懶散，什麽事都不想做。

M: That's Ok. You're on vacation. You have very good reasons to be slacking off.

L: 雖然說是放假，可是我本來打算利用假期多讀些英文書，我要是這麽懶散，恐怕連一本書也讀不完了。

M: I wish it were holiday all the time, so I could always slack off.

L: 什麽？你想每天都放假，那你就可以老這麽輕鬆的了？嘿，Michael，我們中文裏常說："一張一馳"。Slack off一段時間以後，你就應該努力工作啦！

M: Hmm. Maybe you are right. Sometimes after slacking off during a holiday or vacation, we do feel refreshed and ready to get back to work again.

L: 也是啊，適當放鬆一下，工作起來會更帶勁兒。新年快到了，我確實應該slack off for a couple of days, 可是如果slack off的時間太長了，我心裏就會覺得不安。

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L: 哎，Michael, 你提早下班，萬一公司有什麽要緊事，你不擔心同事會找你嗎？

M: Oh, don't worry about that. I am not that important, I'm just a peon where I work.

L: 你是什麽？a peon? 那是什麽呀？

M: I said I am a Peon. The word "peon" originally meant someone who did manual labor in order to pay off a debt. These days, though, people use "peon" to refer to an unimportant person at work who performs a simple task.

L: 噢，peon這個詞原來是指"為了還債而做苦工的人"，現在呢，大家用peon這個詞來指那些在公司裏做簡單工作，地位比較低的雇員。Oh, come on Michael, 你怎麽能說自己在公司不重要呢？

M: No, I'm just a peon at my workplace. Anyone could do my job.

L: 嗯，要是誰都能做你的工作，那恐怕是一個peon了。中文係的李教授常常對我們說，你要不好好幹，好多人都等著這個位子呢。看來，我才是一個真正的peon呢。

M: Well, maybe you are easy to replace. But that's no reason for you to feel like a peon.

L: 你說得對，我不應該自己覺得我做的工作不重要，而且，想想看，我們大學校長或是你們公司老板恐怕當年也做過好一段時間的peon呢！

今天李華學到了兩個常用語，一個是： to slack off, 意思是"鬆懈，懶散"。另一個是peon, 指"在工作單位做簡單工作的人"，也就是所謂的"小土豆"。

(ZT)