Translated from the Hungarian by Richard Hayward

English editing on Eszter Tarsoly's translation seminars by Hayley Anderson, Joe Bates, MihályKöntös, Sára Szakál, and Simon Watson

I used to work as a public worker but I quit because I got paid very little, and I thoughtthat if I went to work as a cleaner in Tiszavasvári, I might be better off. I was wrong, it's true,as I could work only on a public service wage even as a cleaner. I had no choice but accept thissituation. Then one morning my partner Bandi told me that a new business was being set upand he was going to work there. So I asked him, "Where are you going to work?” He told mewhere he was going. I replied: “What? Where? What are you going to do there?” And he toldme he was going to work in the meat industry. I was shocked. I said to myself, in the meatindustry? How come? What exactly? I didn't understand the whole thing. When he came homefrom work, I was already home, and I started asking questions: what's the job like, what doyou do, and so I now had a spark, I was very interested. And one day I told him to ask if I couldalso go there as a low-skilled worker to train. He was very happy to see that I was interestedin his work, and when he came home from work the next day, I heard the good news: yes, hesaid, I could go to work there. I went to my workplace and left the job I was doing by mutualagreement. And I started on the new place on Monday.

When I got there, it was very strange, it seemed like a school to me. But when I gotto the plant, everything was so unusual. The work to be done was coming to the workers on aconveyor belt. I was just watching who was doing what. It was fun! Gradually, I learned all theoperations. And so by the end I knew all the operations except one, which was my work pair’stask. Now I'm at the end of the line, working as a quality control checker. I have to check thework completed by others in the line. If something doesn't match, I'll take it off the conveyorbelt.

I love my job, I love my colleagues. They love it too. I like the shift supervisor. She'ssweet and kind. My co-workers are mixed, Roma and Hungarian, they are nice and helpful. It'strue that getting up early sometimes tires me. We wake up at 2:30am, but it's worth it. I hopethe plant will remain open for a long time. I have recommended this workplace to manypeople. It really pays off to work there. The people are nice and honest. It's important to havemutual respect in a workplace. I will end my little speech with this.