美語情景對話 第976期:Work on the Go 忙碌工作

Julia: So talking of working overseas, how does that work? How do set that kind of lifestyle up?

朱莉婭：我們來談談在外國工作這件事，具體要怎麼實施？如何開始這種生活方式？

Todd: You mean like the nomadic lifestyle?

託德：你是說流浪式的生活方式？

Julia: Yeah, yeah, when you want to travel and just be free and how do you go about that?

朱莉婭：對，你想去旅行、想自由地生活時，要如何去做？

Todd: Well, it's interesting. Like I think people get the wrong idea about working that type of life, being like a nomad. First of all you're actually not a tourist and in a lot of ways you're not a traveler. Like I actually worked and oddly enough, you know when I was just traveling and just living from city to city and working digitally from my computer, I put in more than forty hours a week. I actually probably put in maybe fifty or sixty because I had so much time. I had nothing to do usually so I would work usually five to six days a week and usually ten hours a day. So the first thing is that you work a lot and because you work a lot, you have to look for places that are conductive, conducive I'm sorry, that are conducive for working. So the first thing you need is you need a hotel or like usually a short term apartment because it's usually best to stay in one place for about a month and you need a place that has a good desk and a good chair. I cannot emphasize the importance of a good chair. A good chair is actually so much more important than cable TV or a nice bed or a pool or whatever because you're going to sit in the chair all the time. So when I would travel, I would go to a hotel and the first thing I would ask is can I see...

託德：嗯，這很有意思。我認爲人們對這種流浪式的生活方式有誤解。首先，你並不是遊客，從很多方面來說，你並不是旅行者。因爲我在工作，奇怪的是，我在旅行時，在各個城市生活的時候，我在用電腦工作，我每週有40個小時以上的時間在工作。我可能有55到60個小時都在工作，因爲我有很多時間。通常我沒有什麼事情要做，所以我一週有五天到六天會工作，基本上每天工作10個小時。首先，要做很多工作，正因爲要做很多工作，所以要找方便工作的地方。因此，首先要做的是找個酒店或是短期公寓，因爲最好能在一個地方住一個月的時間，而且需要找一個有好的辦公桌和椅子的地方。我再怎麼強調一把好椅子的重要性都不爲過。一把好的椅子比有線電視或是一張好牀、游泳池要重要得多，因爲你要一直坐在椅子上工作。所以我在旅行時，我去一家酒店首先會問的問題是我能不能看一下……

Julia: The chair?

朱莉婭：椅子？

Todd: Can I see the chairs in the room and if I didn't like the chair, I'd say like look I'm going to be here for two weeks I'll stay but you gotta get me like a nice chair. So that was one thing. So usually you want to get like a short-term housing. You look on the internet, you know, two weeks at a time and usually you can find something cheap. You usually want to be in a major city because you need to have internet and that is the most important thing. You'd be surprised at what countries have fast internet. Like Vietnam really fast and you can work wireless from the beach. I used to sit on the beach with my laptop and have high speed wireless in some of the cities in Vietnam.

託德：我能不能看一下房間裏的椅子，如果我不喜歡那把椅子，我會說我要在這裏住兩個星期，所以你們要給我找一把好椅子來。所以這是首先要做的事情。通常情況下要找短租房。你可以在網絡上尋找，基本上要租兩週的時間，在網上可以找到便宜的房子。而且要住在大城市，因爲你需要網絡，這是最重要的事情。你會對哪些國家擁有快速網絡感到震驚的。越南的網速就非常快，你可以在海灘上用無線網絡工作。我曾經在海灘上用筆記本工作，越南有些城市擁有高速無線網絡。

Julia: Wow.

朱莉婭：哇哦。

Todd: Yeah, it's amazing. You know, Thailand, Bangkok, it's surprisingly not that fast. So Bangkok wasn't that fast but if you went to a smaller city like Chiang Mai, the internet was really fast.

託德：嗯，非常不可思議。令人吃驚的是，泰國曼谷的網速並不是很快。曼谷的網速不快，可是像清邁這種小一些的城市，網速卻非常快。

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重點講解：
1. oddly enough 說來奇怪；
例句：Oddly enough, the most expensive tickets sold fastest.
奇怪極了，最貴的票居然賣得最快。
2. look for 找；尋；
例句：As the tide receded we were able to look for shells.
潮水退去，我們就能尋找貝殼了。
3. all the time 一直；
例句：My last job lacked variety; I was doing the same things all the time.
我上次那份工作缺乏變化，我老是在做同樣的事情。
4. used to do sth. 過去常常；過去曾；
例句：The two children used to bicker about who should do the washing-up.
這兩個小孩子過去常爲該由誰洗餐具一事而爭吵。