My First Guiding Experience

I have officially given three tours of Parliament in English and two in French! Yesterday was my first day guiding and I gave two English tours to two groups of thirty grade 8 students and their teachers. I was quite nervous because although I had spent a significant amount of time preparing I was unsure about what to expect from my first tours. I was pleasantly surprised to find both groups very engaged and interested by what I was sharing with them.

This morning I arrived at Parliament to find out I was giving a French public tour to a group of fifty visitors. I was even more nervous for this tour because I knew there would be many francophone visitors; mostly from France, Quebec and Montreal. Although I was in French Immersion throughout elementary school and studied French in high school it has been a while since I have been completely immersed in the language. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised! The visitors were very friendly and made me feel comfortable speaking in French. After giving a tour in French the English tours felt much easier.

A lot of my colleagues were sharing some of their first guiding experiences today and I have to admit that some of their stories were pretty hilarious. It's reassuring to hear about their experiences because it reminds me that we are all in this together and everyone is learning. 

This afternoon I had my first "challenging" tour. It was one of the last French tours of the day, yet since we ran out of English tour tickets around 11am many of the visitors on my tour did not speak French. This happens sometimes on very busy days, some tourists who are only in Ottawa for one day will take tickets for French tours even if they don't understand the language because they want a chance to see our Parliament building. This meant that I had to give a French tour to a group of 50 people of which maybe 8 spoke French and the rest could not understand what I was saying. However, as a Parliamentary guide I represent the Canadian Parliament to our visitors so I try to ensure that everyone has a positive experience. 

After two days of guiding I have learned to communicate assertively and to speak confidently, because if some visitors sense that you are nervous or unsure they try to take advantage of that. My first five tours have gone well so far, however, I am still adapting the material and deciding what I would like to share with visitors. My goal is to make the information I share meaningful to visitors; I don't want to tell them facts they are going to forget, rather, I would like their visit to actually make an impact on their lives.