VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed2:332025-03-10public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
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01The world's oldest female barber is 108 years old, but the thin, white-haired Japanese woman, Shitsui Hakuishi, says she has no plans to retire anytime soon.
02Hakuishi has been named the world's oldest female barber by the Guinness World Records.
03She said the recent recognition by the international organization brought her much joy.
04She was presented with an official document confirming her record.
05Guinness World Records has a separate category for male barbers.
06But the 107-year-old man who held that title from 2018, Anthony Mancinelli of the United States, has died.
07That leaves Hakuishi as the only holder of the record.
08Her career has lasted 90 years, and she says she owes it all to her customers.
09I could come this far only because of my customers, Hakuishi told a news conference in her hometown of Nakagawa, northeast of Tokyo.
10Born on November 10, 1916, to a family of farmers farmers in Nakagawa, Hakuishi decided to become a barber at age 14 and moved to Tokyo, where she developed her skills first as an apprentice.
11She got her barber's license at 20 and opened a shop together with her husband.
12They had two children before he was killed in the Japan-China War that broke out in 1937.
13Hakuishi lost her shop in the deadly March 10, 1945, U.S.
14firebombing of Tokyo.
15Before that, Guinness says, she and her children were moved out of the city for safety.
16It took her eight more years before she opened a shop again, calling it Rihatsu Hakuishi.
17Rihatsu is Japanese for barber.
18Hakuishi says she is not ready to stop cutting hair.
19I am turning 109 this year, so I will keep going until I reach 110, she said with a smile.
20I am Jill Robbins.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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