Film Based in Japan, 1929, Memoirs of s Geisha directed by Rob Marshall

Summary of Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of s Geisha directed by Rob Marshall takes place in 1929, Japan, which follows a story of a girl named Chiyo. Chiyo is a nine year old girl from impoverished fishing village and is sold to a geisha house in the hanamachi (red distract) of Kyoto Japan. While living in the geisha house, Chiyo attracts attention of many different people due to her beauty. Due to this beauty Hatsumomo, head geisha of the house Chiyo lives in, becomes jealous of said beauty and tries to hinder Chiyo’s chances of being a Geisha. She is then recused by Memaha, a rival of Hatsumomo, and under her tutelage Chiyo becomes a geisha named Sayuri. Trained in the artistic and social art, Chiyo enters the society of the wealthy and privilege.

Encountering Japanese Culture as a Nurse

Japanese culture is very much different to that of the American culture. Japanese have different traditions and doings that might not make sense to in American culture. The very first barrier that a nurse might face is language. Japanese uses characters and symbols as writings and has a different sentence structure than of the English language. To my knowledge most Japanese people that come from Japan would have some sense of the English language due to the education that they receive. That is not always the case because as a person grows into adulthood what education they may have receive, if that knowledge is not used, the more the person forgets. It is wise to seek a translator when encountering a Japanese individual who does not understand English well. Another thing that may help a Japanese individual understand what they might need to do afterwards is giving them instructions that they could follow in their language. By doing these types of action, a nurse may able to breakdown the barrier that hinders a good communication between two cultures.

In American society, people would maintain eye contact with the person that they are interacting with. This is however different in Japanese culture which prefers indirect eye contact. To the Japanese culture having direct eye contact with a person especially an elder is disrespectful. A nurse should not feel offended when a Japanese individual’s eye wanders rather looking directly at them. A wise action that a nurse can take when encountering this type of action is to follow their example. When encountering someone of a Japanese culture physical contact is scarce while interacting with people.