【大紀元2011年06月09日訊】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, 你今天怎麼這麼早就下班啦？
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，而且辦公室裡每個人都在slacking off? 那是做甚麼呀？
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: 你們公司老闆比你走得還早，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，甚麼事都不想做。
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，我要是這麼懶散，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: 甚麼？你想每天都放假，那你就可以老這麼輕鬆的了？嘿，Michael，我們中文裡常說：「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。
******
L: 哎，Michael, 你提早下班，萬一公司有甚麼要緊事，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: 你是甚麼？a peon? 那是甚麼呀？
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裡做簡單工作，地位比較低的僱員。Oh, come on Michael, 你怎麼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。中文系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闆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」。
