美國(guó)之音之流行美語(yǔ)slack off / peon

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今天Michael提前下班，在路上碰到李華。李華會(huì)學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語(yǔ)： to slack off和peon。

L: 嘿， Michael, 你今天怎么這么早就下班啦？

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

L: 你說(shuō)是因?yàn)檫^(guò)節(jié)，早下班沒(méi)人會(huì)介意，而且辦公室里每個(gè)人都在slacking off? 那是做什么呀？

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(shuō)，因?yàn)檫^(guò)節(jié)，所以同事們都比較放松-- Everyone at work is slacking off. 可是，Michael, 你自作主張?zhí)崆跋掳?，是不是有一點(diǎn)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(lái)，他比你更加slack off。說(shuō)得也是，馬上就要新年了，連我也覺(jué)得挺懶散，什么事都不想做。

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

L: 雖然說(shuō)是放假，可是我本來(lái)打算利用假期多讀些英文書，我要是這么懶散，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: 什么？你想每天都放假，那你就可以老這么輕松的了？嘿，Michael，我們中文里常說(shuō)：“一張一馳”。Slack off一段時(shí)間以后，你就應(yīng)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(dāng)放松一下，工作起來(lái)會(huì)更帶勁兒。新年快到了，我確實(shí)應(yīng)該slack off for a couple of days, 可是如果slack off的時(shí)間太長(zhǎng)了，我心里就會(huì)覺(jué)得不安。

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L: 哎，Michael, 你提早下班，萬(wàn)一公司有什么要緊事，你不擔(dān)心同事會(huì)找你嗎？

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

L: 你是什么？a peon? 那是什么呀？

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(gè)詞原來(lái)是指“為了還債而做苦工的人”，現(xiàn)在呢，大家用peon這個(gè)詞來(lái)指那些在公司里做簡(jiǎn)單工作，地位比較低的雇員。Oh, come on Michael, 你怎么能說(shuō)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(shuí)都能做你的工作，那恐怕是一個(gè)peon了。中文系的李教授常常對(duì)我們說(shuō)，你要不好好干，好多人都等著這個(gè)位子呢。看來(lái)，我才是一個(gè)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(shuō)得對(duì)，我不應(yīng)該自己覺(jué)得我做的工作不重要，而且，想想看，我們大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)或是你們公司老板恐怕當(dāng)年也做過(guò)好一段時(shí)間的peon呢！

今天李華學(xué)到了兩個(gè)常用語(yǔ)，一個(gè)是： to slack off, 意思是“松懈，懶散”。另一個(gè)是peon, 指“在工作單位做簡(jiǎn)單工作的人”，也就是所謂的“小土豆”。