I was skimming through The Good Guide to find ways of making
my tours more interesting, when I fell upon this line: "Folktales, myths, and historical stories need to be told enthusiastically with
gestures and expressions." (Grinder 79). The book highly encouraged anecdotes, because they can help enliven the tour. (Grinder 79). This information proved to be very
efficient in one aspect of the tour. When I inform people about Kent's early
agriculture life, I now use gestures and expressions to explain what lettuce
queens did.
When I toured a middle aged couple, I said "The lettuce queens
went into the world's largest salad," and made a big circle around me with
my arms to indicate a large salad bowl.
"then they got pitchforks and picked up pieces of the salad," I
pretended as though I was holding a pitchfork and tried to grab imaginary
pieces of salad. "when they managed to grab enough pieces of salad, they served the
salad to the people attending the lettuce festival!" I held my
imaginary pitchfork and pointed it to the couple to indicate how the lettuce
queens served the salad.
After I finished telling my story about the lettuce queens, it was clear
that the couple paid utmost attention to what I was saying
because they asked follow up questions about the lettuce queens, one of
the questions being if there were any pictures of the large salad bowl.
Question: Does using hand gestures personally help you explain things,
are do they feel distracting?
Grinder, Alison L., and E. Sue. McCoy. The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for
Interpreters, Docents, and Tour Guides. Scottsdale, AZ: Ironwood, 1985.
Print.
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