This time last year, I had just got back from an incredible trip to Myanmar. It was an unforgettable experience that was made particularly special by all the new friends that I made. One of them was a young tour guide called Chris. On February 23rd 2020, I made Chris the subject of a LessonStream Post titled "What can a teacher learn from a tour guide?" Below, you will see the original post that I sent out on that date.
Part one: Bagan
Imagine this: you are walking around a marina with a friend, looking at the yachts. Perhaps you are in Barcelona, Brisbane or Beirut. It doesn’t matter – the game is the same. You are pretending which of those luxury yachts belongs to you.
Of course, no two yachts are the same. They come in different shapes, sizes and even colours. One of you jokes that you aren’t greedy – that you would be perfectly happy with that “small one over there”. How very humble of you!
But that “small one over there” would still set you back hundreds of thousands of euros. Each yacht in the marina is a floating monument which honors the unfathomable wealth of some individual, whose name will probably mean nothing to you.
Now, let’s imagine that you are playing the same game 700 years ago. But rather than walking around a marina, you are in the city of Bagan – the capital and cultural center of the Pagan Empire, the first kingdom to unify the regions which would become modern-day Myanmar. Rather than joking about which yacht you own, you are joking about which temple you built. And this is not a game that you grow tired of. Because crammed into an area of 40 square miles are over 10,000 religious monuments: stūpas, temples and monasteries constructed by rulers and wealthy subjects.
Just like the yachts, no two monuments are the same. They come in all sorts of shapes, styles and degrees of ornateness. Some of them tower high above you. Others may seem more accessible to you. But make no mistake: each of these temples testifies wealth, just as the yachts do.
So why so many? Well, it makes me think of a passage from George Orwell’s Burmese Days. At the start of the book, we are introduced to an unpleasant character – a corrupt official named U Po Kyiv. Orwell writes:
“According to Buddhist belief, those who have done evil in their lives will spend the next incarnation in the shape of a rat, a frog or some other low animal. U Po Kyiv was a good Buddhist and intended to provide against this danger. He would devote his closing years to good works, which would pile up enough merit to outweigh the rest of his life. Probably his good works would take the form of building pagodas. Four pagodas, five, six, seven – the priests would tell him how many – with carved stonework, gilt umbrellas and little bells that tinkled in the wind, every tinkle a prayer.“
History has seen many men like U Po Kyiv. And the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bagan is a reminder of this – almost 4000 of those temples and pagodas survive. Bagan is one the most spectacular places I have ever visited.
Part two: Chris
What you have just read are my thoughts as I took a coach from Bagan to Yangon. This was me trying to make sense of my experience by creating a connection between something that I am familiar with and something that is new to me.
To a large extent, these thoughts were facilitated by Chris – a reassuringly-confident young tour guide and my teacher for the day.
Chris grew up in a village not too far from Bagan. For five years, he has been showing visitors around Bagan. He also teaches English. And right now, I am wondering: what is it that made Chris such a good guide?
If you ask this question to non-teachers (which is something that I did) you might not be surprised to hear that good subject knowledge comes high on the list. But as teachers, we know that there is much more to it than that.
So here are a few observations that I made – 8 things that Chris did to create an enjoyable and educational experience for all of us.
1. He learned our names
There were 10 of us in the group. And within the first hour, Chris knew us all by name. It’s incredible how this simple technique can allow individuals to feel valued. It also provided us with constant exposure to each others’ names so that by the end of the tour, everyone knew who everyone was. This must be the most fundamental way to foster community within a group.
2. He took an interest in us as individuals
We were a group of ten. But for Chris, we were ten individuals. Whenever he could, he found out about who we were. We had conversations. He was curious. He wanted to know about us. Again, this made us feel valued and allowed for group cohesion.
3. He had awareness
A guided tour can result in information overload and Chris was aware of this. He monitored our energy levels. At one moment, he paused and stopped talking, aware that some of us had become distracted by the arrival of a friendly kitten. Once he had regained our attention, he recapped on what he had said and continued.
4. He knew that less is more
Good tour guides know that information overload can kill the experience. Chris provided us with plenty of space to process information and to ask questions.
5. He asked questions
A question allows you to turn a fact into an interactive and memorable experience: Do you know the difference between a temple and a stupa? Can you guess how many surviving temples there are? Why do you think that there are so many? (This latter question resulted in the introduction to this post.)
6. He primed us for a story
This was an interesting technique. Chris asked us to remember a name (King Narathu) without telling us why. Throughout the morning, he would test us to see who could recall it. As well as making us curious, this allowed us to make a delightful connection when he dropped the name of this murderous king into the gruesome story of the Dhammayangyi Temple.
7. He didn’t get lost in the minutiae of the details
Chris was always quick to step outside Bagan and make bigger-picture connections with Myanmar and its modern history. He was constantly looking to find out what we already knew, and build upon our pre-existing knowledge. Do you know why the country name was changed from Burma to Myanmar? What do you know about the military dictatorship which lasted for 5 decades and came to an end in 2011? Do you know what happened in the country in 1988? What do you know about the current conflicts in the country?
8. Chris allowed his personality to shine through
Later that night, a few of us sat together and had a beer at our hostel. We spoke about the day and our individual experiences of the guided tour. And we spoke about Chris. We pooled together our little pieces of information that we had learned about him. We speculated about him. And there was a sense of gratitude to him.
So if you ever find yourself in Myanmar, make sure you get to Bagan. And when you do so, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch with my new friend.
Thank you for reading!
Jamie
Postscript
So, that was the LessonStream Post that I sent out a year ago this month. Unfortunately, the idea of visiting Myanmar now seems a lot less likely.
On 1st February 2021, senior general and Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing forcibly replaced a democratically-elected government with himself in a coup d’état ending ten years of civilian rule.
It’s incredibly sad to think of all the lovely people I met who worked so hard to make a living out of the country’s steadily growing tourist industry. And now, a generation who got a glimpse of freedom after five decades of military rule are looking at having it taken away from them.
- Image credit: Photograph at the top of the page by Nicholas Kenrick
- Image below: 12-year-old Bew, another resident of Bagan (click here for story)
