in the middle of...

在...之间

He is standing in the middle of the room.

他站在屋子的中间。

I was in the middle of dinner when he called.

他打进来的时候，我正在吃晚饭。

employ

雇佣

The company employed several new staff.

公司又雇佣了几个新员工。

self-employed

个体经营的；单干的；自由职业的

I'm self-employed.

我是自由职业者。

employee

雇员

Conversation:

A: What's up? Are you in the middle of something?

你还好吗？在忙吗？

B: Yeah. I'm just working out how much money I've earned this month.

是啊，我正在算这个月我能赚多少钱。

A: Doesn't your company work that out for you?

这不是应该由你的公司给你算吗？

B: I don't work for a company anymore. After I got fired last month, I decided to become self-employed.

我现在不在公司上班了，上个月被公司解雇之后，我决定自己干。

A: Really? That's exciting. How do you like it so far?

真的吗？太好了，那到现在为止你干的怎么样了？

B: Well, I can wake up whenever I want and I don't have to ask anyone's permission to take a break.

我可以想什么时候起床就什么时候起床，想休息的时候也不用征求任何人的同意。

A: That sounds good.

听起来不错。

B: Actually. I'm working more hours now than I did before. But I don't mind as much because I'm the one making decisions.

实际上，我现在工作的时间比以前长多了。但是我不太介意这个，因为我一个人说了算。

A: How's the pay?

收入如何？

B: I'd rather not say. It's kind of a personal thing.

我不想说，这是我的私事。