Xiaohua: 又到了RoundTable词汇小百科时间了。这周我们来谈谈白领--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:其实白领的定义在西方和我们所说的白领新标准是非常不一样的。White collar 指的是从事专业方面，管理或者行政方面的工作。典型的白领就是坐在办公室的小隔间里工作的人。

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:蓝领大家都知道，指的一般是体力劳动者。还有更新的词汇，比如pink collar，粉领，是指一些传统由女性所从事的工作，或者一些服务业领域的从业者。另外还有一个新词就是green collar，绿领，一般指的是在环境产业或环保业工作的人。

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:先说说白领吧。白领又被称作是脑力工作者。白领这个词汇首次出现实在二十世纪三十年代一位美国作家的书里。

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: 蓝领为什么是叫蓝领呢？体力工作者一般会穿一些禁脏或者非常耐穿的蓝色制服。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: 虽然我们用颜色区别这些不同领域的工作者，但是到了今天很多白领都不见得会穿白色的西装衬衫上班。而很多的蓝领也不会穿蓝色的制服了。

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