Xiaohua: 又到了RoundTable詞匯小百科時間了。這周我們來談談白領--white collar. Because previously, we had a topic talking about the new standard for white collar. Apparently, it’s so complicated. It includes salary, where you live, how you travel, things like that.

John: Yeah, I think it really does show a fundamental difference between the way the world white collar is used in Chinese versus the way it’s used in English and in most of the rest of the world. Typically, white collar work is performed in an office or cubicle. And so a white collar worker is a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work.

Xiaohua:其實白領的定義在西方和我們所說的白領新標準是非常不一樣的。White collar 指的是從事專業方面，管理或者行政方面的工作。典型的白領就是坐在辦公室的小隔間里工作的人。

John: There are other types of workers, which I’m sure our listeners are already aware of. For example, blue collar whose job usually requires manual labor. Something that our listeners might have never heard of is pink collar worker, usually related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales, or other service oriented work that was typically associated with what a female would do and we’re seeing more and more men take up these roles. And then, also, there’s something called a green collar worker. Most of you guys can guess what that means. It’s basically just someone who works in a green industry.

Xiaohua:藍領大家都知道，指的一般是體力勞動者。還有更新的詞匯，比如pink collar，粉領，是指一些傳統由女性所從事的工作，或者一些服務業領域的從業者。另外還有一個新詞就是green collar，綠領，一般指的是在環境產業或環保業工作的人。

John: Looking at white collar first. Sometimes they’re actually called a knowledge worker as well; someone who uses their brains more than their hands. The actual term, white collar worker, refers to the white dress shirts of many male office workers common through the 19th and 20th centuries. The term white collar is actually credited to Upton Sinclair, an American writer in relation to contemporary clerical, administrative, and management workers during the 1930s.

Xiaohua:先說說白領吧。白領又被稱作是腦力工作者。白領這個詞匯首次出現實在二十世紀三十年代一位美國作家的書里。

John: The blue collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor in terms of United States usage. Interestingly enough, industrial and manual workers usually wear durable canvas or cotton clothing. Navy and light blue colors can conceal potential dirt or grease on the workers’ clothing and so that’s why we see that most manual laborers wear blue. Thus, the word blue collar.

Xiaohua: 藍領為什么是叫藍領呢？體力工作者一般會穿一些禁臟或者非常耐穿的藍色制服。That’s why there’s the word blue collar.

John: And even white collar jobs these days, most people don’t even wear white dress shirts anymore. They might wear blue. They might wear red or black or whatever they want.

Xiaohua: 雖然我們用顏色區別這些不同領域的工作者，但是到了今天很多白領都不見得會穿白色的西裝襯衫上班。而很多的藍領也不會穿藍色的制服了。

And that’s we have for this edition of Round Table’s Word of the Week.