Wisdoms of the profession guide-guide

You came to an unfamiliar city. You look at him with curiosity, in anticipation of new impressions, and he looks at you as another tourist: he does not show much interest and is somewhat aloof. Your brief first acquaintance and careless handshake took place through the windows of the bus: you managed to see only the shell of the city, its gloss, a series of endless streets, flickering green parks, and stone pavements. For a while you still watch the road, you can easily explain to yourself how to get to the starting point. But suddenly all this whirlwind of stone jungle sweeps before your eyes, and at the next turn all the intersections mix, merge into a tangled tangle of asphalt paths ... You are alone with an unfamiliar city. You are in a new world for you. What you need most right now is a guide, someone who knows where each street will lead. The one who knows that he is desperately hiding behind his back an immense skyscraper, the one who can tell the story of each stone. You need it. guide! “When a person who is not particularly fond of architecture is shown the most beautiful and significant places, the city becomes a solid stone monument, devoid of its special spirit,” says Natalia Rumyantseva, a guide with many years of experience, “but it is worth walking around it yourself, as it opens up completely different, gives rise to new sensations.” I always try to imagine what would be interesting to me if I were to visit this city for the first time. This definition provides a good dictionary. In fact, the profession of a guide is much thinner and more complex. Perfect knowledge of history and foreign language for communication with guests from other countries is not enough to be a true professional in your field. “I love my city very much,” Natalia began her story about her profession. And that may be the basis of success. If a guide ceases to feel the charm of the city, the story becomes a routine: “Look left, look right...” I always tell what is interesting to the group, choose what seems original and unusual to the representatives of each particular country. A guide’s story should not be like a paragraph from a history book. After all, each person after the trip has his own image of the city, and the guide should not dispel the charm, turn all the secrets into a simple heap of historical events. Each time, together with the guests, he marvels at the riddles, tells about the fairy tales and myths of each corner, allows you to feel the energy of all memorable places. And the City, feeling that it can trust a knowledgeable guide, fearlessly opens all its secret passages, bridges of kisses and underground branches. He allows you to make a wish by touching a grated stone on the pavement, and opens incredibly beautiful views of his cathedrals. " But historical facts cannot be changed. You have to tell the same thing every time. For the one hundred and fifteenth time it becomes simply boring, I note Natalia in her enthusiastic speeches. “And I don’t like to lead people on the same routes, so that you don’t get bored,” she replies, “And there is always feedback.” Foreigners are always interested, they ask a lot of questions. Of course, if the guide tells is not interesting and monotonous, tourists tend to quickly escape behind the beckoning turn on the street with an unfamiliar name, and finally “really” see the city. But if a guide is capable of captivating his story, all attention will be focused on him ... and dozens of “why” will fall: what does this or that symbol mean? what is connected with this temple? for whom was this castle built? Tourists are happy to ask questions because they know that no one will fill their head with numerous dates and complex names, but just tell another fascinating story. “If the guide easily and quickly finds answers to questions, he does it enthusiastically – the group will easily forgive him if he makes some mistake, oversight or simply does not pick up the right word in a foreign language. I have experienced this from my own experience, the guide shares. Of course, now more and more universities and specialized courses are opening, which promise to make every effort to grow a real guide out of you in five years (or three or four months), teach all the wisdom, introduce new methods of conducting excursions and communicating with foreigners into your minds. But there are things that are not easy to learn. After all, the inherent qualities of a good guide are resourcefulness, charisma, good speech, the ability to hold. A guide is a real rhetorician who can hold the audience’s attention for more than four hours, who can lead people (literally and figuratively). After all our travels, we always sum up: “My favorite city is Venice”, “I adore Prague”, “Peter is the place of my dreams”. And all because this or that city opened up to us, trusted us. He smiled with the glare of the sun in the huge windows of luxurious cathedrals, beckoned with the aromas of coffee and cookies to cozy restaurants, talked in a friendly rustle of leaves in parks, shamelessly told all his stories, starting from the foundation. That’s because one person we met was just doing a very good job and was a real professional guide.

Musaelyan Vera Vyacheslavovna (journalist)

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