职场英语：如何跟老外BOSS请假?
Jerry跟同事Paula和Will打招呼，聊聊彼此遥都干了些什么。
Jerry: Hey, Paula.
Hi, Will.
Did you have a good weekend?
Paula: Yeah.
.
.
I checked out that new 3D movie.
It's amazing what they can do with technologies these days!
Will: I went mountain biking with a couple of friends.
We worked up a good sweat and had a good time.
How about you, Jerry?
J: Actually, I spent most of the weekend looking at travel brochures。
Paula遥去看了新出的三维电影，3D movie.
Will跟几个朋友一起去骑山地车，山地车在英语里叫 mountain bike，在上面那段话里是做动词用，Will went mountain biking.
Will还说，他们出了一身汗，玩得特别开心。
work up a sweat是一种习惯用法，指锻炼身体或从事体力活动很投入，可以是真的出了一身汗，也可以形容特别卖力。
Jerry呢，一个遥大部分时间都在看旅游宣传材料travel brochures.
看来他是要休假喽?
Paula问： P: Really?
Are you going somewhere?
J: Well, starting on the 20th of this month, I'm taking a fiveweek vacation。
W: Five weeks!
!
No way!
P: Get out of here!
How did you swing that?
J: Actually, the company owes me about four months' worth of vacation time.
I've been working here since 2002 and haven't taken a vacation yet.
I've got oodles of comp time as well。
W: Sorry, what's comp time?
Jerry要休五个星期的假，Will和Paula都不敢相信，问Jerry, How did you swing that?
to swing it是一种口语里非正式的说法，意思是说服别人，达到自己的目的。
Jerry解释说，他从2002年来这家公司工作，就一直没休过假，遥公司欠他四个月的假期，Jerry说，另外，I've got oodles of comp time as well.
oodles of something也是一种非正式的说法，相当于a lot of something，Jerry说自己除了四个月的假期，还攒了很多comp time.
Will是新毕业的大学生，不知道什么是comp time.
Paula解释说， P: The "comp" is short for compensation.
Basically he means overtime pay。
J: Yeah, but some companies like ours don't really pay overtime.
.
.
they give you extra vacation hours instead.
If you add up all the vacation time and comp hours I have, I have a lot of time。
P: When I was working for a company in Germany they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules。
Paula解释说，comp是compensation的简写，其实就是overtime加班，有些公司不发加班费，而是把员工加班的时间折合成假期，补偿给员工。
另外，欧洲和美国的情况也有很大的区别，Paula说，她以前曾经在德国的一家公司工作过，they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules.
那家公司不仅工作时间短，而且加班的规定也very liberal，很松。
J: I have to say I'm looking forward to my long vacation.
I think you need at least three or four weeks of doing nothing before you can truly relax。
W: I thought you said you had months and months of vacation time available.
Why are you only taking five weeks off?
J: Five weeks was the best I could negotiate with my boss.
She says she knows I've earned the time, but she begged me not to take more than five weeks。
P: Five weeks should be long enough!
Who knows?
Maybe you'll get bored and come back early!
J: (laugh) I doubt it。
Jerry虽然有好几月的假期，但老板较多只让他休五个星期， 看来他一定是很能干。
Paula开玩笑说，五个星期也足够了，搞不好用不了五个星期Jerry就觉得实在无聊，提前回来上班了呢!