Person Friday & 菩提樹 by 北京天使合唱团

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

 

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.

眨眼间我已來了這天寒地凍的国家快30年了。回想初來的第一个月, 天天到 處想找文房工作(在原居地我也算的是專业人仕) 。天天都碰壁, 多数好的公司嫌我 “沒有本地經驗”來做藉口。 没辦法，只好在政府設的人力部“Man Power”找工作。只見人力部大部份 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， 抄了个号数，便去見人力部的一个女顧问。問她這Person Friday究竟需要做什麽工作。那满头金髮美丽的洋妞子很和善，笑着問我:” 你有看过[魯賓遜漂流記] 這本小說嗎? 里面不就是有一个叫“Friday的”。 我的天，原來這工作是要像 “星期五” 報恩一樣地对主人工作: 什麽都要做。沒辦法，房租快到期了，只好照做。这勞什子星期五工做了快一年。当主人要我替他的Mercedes 換上4条冬輪胎时我就辞职了。 注: 現在加国政府已不許用這名词去僱用工人。