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I. LISTENING AND READING
Listen to the text
Read and translate the text
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TRAINING TO BE A GEISHA
The white face, the dark eyes and hair,
the blood red lips – both the Japanese and
foreigners are fascinated by these beautiful
and mysterious women.
Makiko is training to be a geisha.
Makiko‟s parents wanted her to go to
university, study medicine and become a
doctor. But they
had to accept her choice
because they
didn’t have to support her financially. Makiko‟s grandfather paid for
her training, he also
had to buy the kimonos she needed.
It‟s very expensive to become a geisha. You
have to spend a lot on kimonos
because you
have to have a different kimono each month of the year, and today a
kimono can cost three million yen, it‟s about $25,000.
It‟s a hard life for Makiko. She
has to leave her family and
move into a
special
boarding house called a “maiko house”. Here, she
has to learn traditional Japanese
arts such as playing instruments, the tea ceremony, flower arranging, singing and
dancing, literature and poetry. She
has to take a lot of difficult tests and exams. Only
the best will pass all the tests and become geishas many years later.
When she becomes a geisha she
will have to serve customers and entertain
them. I
will also
have to sing and
dance, and
make conversation.
In Japan today there are about a thousand geishas. They play an important role
in preserving Japanese culture and history.