English for Tourist Guide
By: Aris Darmapati
English
is very important in tourism business. As a global language, English language
can be easily used by the guides. English alleviate the job. So, in order to
improve guide’s proficiency, there are some points that need to be considered
by a tourist guide, they are:
Tourism Location
A
tourist guide must understand the tourism sites to ensure the absence of errors
in his work. It is useful when a guide wants to explain the location or
condition of tourism spot to the tourists. A guide needs to learn or find out
much information related with to the location. A guide must find a variety of
information related to the site. He or she can read from various sources such
as books, magazines, or through interviews with local residents.
History
In
Bali, it is important for a guide to know about the history of a tourism object
or site. So a guide must read a lot of history books. He or she must understand
the various myths and beliefs that exist in the local community. A guide should
know about Hindu history, sacred places, temples, caves and others. It means the
more knowledge about history, the easier the job of a guide. Because of the complexity
of history, a guide has to work hard enough to master it.
Culture & Local Community
It
is similar with the history; local culture and community need to be understood
by a guide. In Bali, a Balinese person who becomes a tourist guide feels easier
to explain his or her culture to the tourists. Seeing this advantage, the guide
should improve his or her knowledge about the culture. Sometimes, culture and local
community become the main allure in the tourism sector and need to be explored
by a guide.
Talk
and Talk
It
is better if a tourist guide talks a lot. A guide has to talk to the entire
tourist as often as possible. Tourists need a radio that moves and keeps
talking. So, tourists will not bother asking him or her anymore if everything
has been explained by the guide. Finally, if they feel a lack of something, then
they will ask.
Vocabulary
& Translation Problems
Vocabulary
and translation become problems in tourist guiding. Sometimes, Balinese
vocabularies are untranslatable. We are unable to translate some words into
English, for example:
-
Sesari
-
Kukul
-
Penjor
-
Sanggah
-
Lungsuran
-
Bungkak
-
Bungsil
-
Klepan
-
Danyuh
-
Busung
These
words are untranslatable into English; so, a guide needs to find the closest
meaning of those words. Explaining the function or description of each word can
help the tourists in understanding it.