Welcome to the world of Berlin walking tours! The first thing a beginner walking tour guide in Berlin really needs to master how to do, is to tell a story. Sharing interesting and vivid information will allow you to involve the listeners, create associations, and leave a pleasant impression from the tour and interesting experience for each participant. In this blog post, we’ll learn about some of the most efficient tools concerning the storytelling aspect which will make your Berlin Walking Tours even more engaging.
This paper aims to make use of a rather powerful rhetoric and explore the possibilities of captivating audience by its very first sentence.
At the start, a good feature of any great tour is that they start off with an attention grabbing line to the participants. First, tell a casual, fun, or wild trivia, story, or history that can be associated with the place. For example:
“I can ask you, do you know that Checkpoint Charlie was the most known border between the East and West Berlin during the Cold War?”
“Just picture yourself being right on that spot that once for a long time separated a city and consequently a nation.”
It also aims to create the proper atmosphere and build interest to the video from your audience to begin with.
Engaging the Audience Through History
A walking touring in Berlin is not just a visiting of attractions; it also involves knowing what happened around them. Bring your participants back in time and teach them history in a most entertaining and dramatic way.
Find interesting and captivating everyday cases, historical episodes, and an appealing personal experience brew. For example:
The Brandenburg Gate has been here for more than two centuries, and this architecture was a silent observer to Napoleon’s victory march and was a symbol of the division of Germany until the fall of this wall in 1989. I’d love to take you to those important points in time and let you meet the people who determined the fate of Berlin.”
Using Visual Aids Effectively
In case you are a tour guide, you need to use objects that will help you paint a picture in the heads of the participants. It may be worthwhile suggesting to bring pictures, maps, diagrams or historical artefacts to support the stories.
For example, if you are defending position about the effects of Berlin Wall, exhibit a picture of people that had been parted and how they felt when they were separated. Not only do you grab the attention of your audience, but at the same time their emotions connect them to the stories you are telling.
Discussion and Intercommunication
I have recently realised that storytelling is not a one way process. Engage your participants and make them involved in the process of creating a story to make them respond to your ads. Organise the learning environment in a manner that the individuals feel free to ask questions, express an idea or bring in their, point of view.
For example, at an historical place you could pose a question, as: “Do you suppose it was like to live in Berlin during the Cold War?” or “How is it that this place has changed after the fall of the wall?” They should participate in discussions to enhance their knowledge in that area of study.
Acting in Seriousness and Comedy
Here we learn that the stories we tell our participants should contain jokes that makes them expectant, get their attention and permanently etch our message on their minds. Use humor in the form of jokes, jokes on history or in connection with something happening in your story.
Besides humor, special relying on the dramatic moments when people want to know information as soon as possible. For instance, you wait until the last minutes of the lesson before explaining a given turning point in a movie or explaining a specific event in history.
Conclusion
When implementingthese storytelling techniques into your Berlin walking tours, you’re definitely going to capture the attention of your participants. Bear in mind that the tour should have aICT-appealing hook at the beginning, historical background, effective use of visual aids, ICT-activity that encourages communication and interaction in the group, and use of ICT-funny stories and ICT-dramaturgical elements in the course of the tour.
In addition to making your tours interesting, a distinct style of narrative will ensure your audience stays captivated and remembers it. Anybody can become an interesting Berlin walking tour guide if they practiced and developed their storytelling aptitude further.
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