VOA标准英语2008年-Young Kurdish Woman Finds Business Opportunitie

By Suzanne Presto¹
Irbil
08 June 2008

Young people in Kurdistan are embracing new opportunities to develop and expand their own businesses. Suzanne Presto speaks to one young woman who balances a family, two beauty salons³ and entrepreneurial classes - while planning to expand her beauty business in the northern city of Irbil.
　

Chnar Raza beautifies clients in her new 'Milano' salon2

Chnar Raza sets to her work in the beauty salon, expertly taking the scissors to a woman's long highlighted hair, chopping off four inches of length with each confident snip⁴. The animated⁵ young Kurdish woman, with shiny raven⁶ hair and expertly applied⁷ dark eyeliner, has been in the beauty business for 11 years, since she left school as a 13-year-old with a desire to open her own salon.

Since 2002, Raza has been running the Rishma Salon. Her beauty shop sits on a busy street lined with low-lying buildings in Irbil's Newroz neighborhood.

She is so busy with clients that she is open from eight in the morning until eight at night, six or seven days each week, providing haircuts and styling, and applying brightly hued⁸ make-up to freshly washed faces, in the two salon chairs facing a long counter and mirror that make up her small salon.
　

Chnar Raza in her salon

The sound of the generator⁹ that provides electricity for the hairdryers whirs loudly outside the window, drowned out a bit by women chattering¹⁰ as hair dye takes hold and luminescent face creams seep¹¹ into their pores. They line the benches along the length of the shop. It is warm, and the small salon smells of hairspray and heat.

Raza, a mother of two, says she always knew she wanted her own business. As a teenage newlywed, Raza sold her wedding gold to afford the rent for this salon space. She decided¹² that gold in a safe would not benefit her or her family, but renting a salon and working in beauty just might.

Raza says her single shop was too small to accommodate all the members of large wedding parties and to meet the demands of her growing clientele. So she took money she earned from her first shop to open a second, slightly larger location nearby, called Milano.

And, the enterprising 24-year-old who spent only six years in formal education is back in the classroom. She is taking part in an entrepreneurial development and investment course offered for the first time by the Irbil Chamber¹³ of Commerce.

Raza says she wanted to learn a new set of business skills. She adds that many girls and women are able to do the work she does, but they do not always think about the future or about expanding their businesses.

One of her eight sisters, Suhela, a seamstress who runs her own dressmaking shop, is also taking this course.

They are two of the nine women and 21 men who attend this class, three hours per day, five days each week, for four weeks. They learn personal development skills, accounting¹⁴, and ways to identify new clients and improve their marketing¹⁵ campaigns.

The Irbil Chamber of Commerce says it is offering the course jointly¹⁶ with Kurdistan's Board of Investment and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

The Chamber's president, Dara Jalil al-Khayat, says he is pleased to be able to offer a course that helps Kurdish people better their own economic circumstances.

"As the president of the Chamber of Commerce, I want success in this business," said Dara Jalil al-Khayat. "And we are very happy [that] for [the] first time, we have 30 people come [to] have training in this kind of business."

Raza says she wants to use her newfound skills to benefit her business, while beautifying and benefiting local women.

She says she hopes to expand her salon to offer additional services, such as laser and spa treatments. And she says she hopes to offer guidance to other young women who want to improve their situations in Kurdistan.

1 presto   

adv.急速地；n.急板乐段；adj.急板的

参考例句：

• With something so important,you can't just wave a wand and presto!在这么重大的问题上，你想挥动一下指挥棒，转眼就变过来,办不到！
• I just turned the piece of wire in the lock and hey presto,the door opened.我把金属丝伸到锁孔里一拧，嘿，那门就开了。

2 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

3 salons   

n.（营业性质的）店( salon的名词复数 )；厅；沙龙（旧时在上流社会女主人家的例行聚会或聚会场所）；（大宅中的）客厅

参考例句：

• He used to attend to his literary salons. 他过去常常去参加他的文学沙龙。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Conspiracy theories about Jewish financiers were the talk of Paris salons. 犹太金融家阴谋论成为巴黎沙龙的话题。 来自互联网

4 snip   

n.便宜货，廉价货，剪，剪断

参考例句：

• He has now begun to snip away at the piece of paper.现在他已经开始剪这张纸。
• The beautifully made briefcase is a snip at £74.25.这个做工精美的公文包售价才74.25英镑，可谓物美价廉。

5 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

6 raven   

n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的

参考例句：

• We know the raven will never leave the man's room.我们知道了乌鸦再也不会离开那个男人的房间。
• Her charming face was framed with raven hair.她迷人的脸上垂落着乌亮的黑发。

7 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

8 hued   

有某种色调的

参考例句：

• Our hands were variedly hued by handling all the chemicals. 因为处理多种化学药剂，我们的手上染上了各种颜色。
• In highlights it hued to a dull silver-grey. 在高光部分，它被染成暗淡的银灰色。

9 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

10 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

11 seep   

v.渗出，渗漏；n.渗漏，小泉，水（油）坑

参考例句：

• My anger began to seep away.我的怒火开始消下去了。
• If meteoric water does not evaporate or run overland,it may seep directly into the ground.如果雨水不从陆地蒸发和流走的话，就可能直接渗入地下。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

14 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

15 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

16 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。