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Chapter nine
Mind your language!
If you need a tourist guide who can speak a foreign language the STGA has been providing them for decades. At the time of writing the STGA offers 19 different languages to its clients. Marianne Everett de Vink, who speaks Dutch, German and French, mainly does extended tours with retired couples who either didn’t learn English at school or what they learned is too long ago. When she started guiding in 1999 the months when demand outstripped supply for French speaking guides were May, June and September.
‘In July and August the French holiday in their own magic country,’ she said. ‘This is more or less still the same today as far as I know. The German passengers on our tours are mainly retired but they will book bus holidays in July and August. Their English is minimal and they feel more comfortable with a German speaking guide for their trip. The only Dutch speaking tours I have done were for Flemish groups.’
Gavin Hunter, who became a Blue Badge Guide in 2002. guides in both French and German.
‘It is interesting in my life that people have perceived me, initially as a teacher, and then as a guide as being exclusively a German speaker!’ he said.
‘My first language is French. I began studying German later and thus I had more catching up to do. As a teacher I seemed to get more of the German classes and I guess that was why I was perceived or “known” to be a German teacher with a bit of French! Similarly I was responding to the demands of the German incoming market. When I qualified there was, as now, no shortage of work in languages, especially German. I can’t speak for other languages. A figure that was bandied about back then was that, after the North American market, the German market was the biggest language market with a 17 per cent share of visitors. Today’s figures seem in the low teens from a quick look I've had. The French work back then was much, much less, as I saw it, and nearly all the foreign language work was in German.
‘The German market was, and I think still is, the second biggest market. On a pro rata basis, you can say that the Germans speak and understand English better than many other nationalities. However, when ‘off duty’ they much prefer to hear German commentaries, added to which their command of English might not encompass some of the more esoteric vocabulary we use in guiding!
‘There was an idea that the French were much less adventurous about leaving France on holiday than the Germans, despite both countries being so close to the UK/Scotland. Nowadays France has just about all the different holiday zones you might want, so why go elsewhere? Now, however, there are many more companies establishing themselves in Scotland, many to do with French visitors. One such company, Smoozy, well established in France and England, only really ‘discovered’ Scotland recently, specifically for larger venues for their corporate clients. They were quite taken aback to find we can do all sizes of events and tours here! I am now getting proportionally more French work than I did before. I also notice/hear more French in the city. However, perception is important here. It could be I am misinformed re the amount of French work over the last 20 years or so, simply because most of my work was in German. The German market right now is not especially dynamic as I understand it, with companies in Germany holding back bookings, at least with the bigger companies (DMCs et al), due to the Brexit effect. The French, it would seem, aren’t really that bothered and continue to come!
‘I do a good deal of corporate and incentive work as well as private walking tours and food tours and the companies I work for seem to have this perception that one speaks either one language or another. A client recently asked me (after working with them since 2003) if I spoke French! I explained that French was my preferred language! So, company/customer expectation can affect selection of a guide for a job. I think you can become ’typecast’ and this affects your perception of demand as you end up ‘just doing German’.
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