The beautiful virtue of diligence
Linda Tjindiawati Arifin, who hails from Indonesia, recalls that the first time she gave a tour she could feel her voice quavering. Her daughter was watching and could tell that her mother was on the verge of tears. Even now, on the night before she gives a tour, Linda goes over her reference materials. Diligent by nature, she worries that her tours are not up to snuff and will reflect poorly on the museum.
Le Vu Phi, who is Vietnamese, attends training sessions partly because they foster self-growth, but she also brings her daughter to them because they provide an opportunity for the child to see her mother diligently studying. Le has slowly but surely come to love her work as a docent.
Tran Tu Binh has been in Taiwan for 16 years. Apart from her regular job, she teaches Vietnamese in “mother-tongue classes” at Wang Xi Elementary in Yonghe, New Taipei City on the weekends. From time to time she asks her students to invite their mothers to go with them on the weekends and to take in a tour at the museum. Apart from giving the students real-life experience with Vietnamese, she also hopes that their new immigrant mothers, who often don’t get out much, will take advantage of the opportunity to gain a better understanding of Taiwan.
Maree is a docent-to-be enrolled in the second session of “ambassador” training classes. She is also the only docent who speaks Thai. She first came to Taiwan to visit relatives 20 years ago. She never expected that she would fall in love with the island and never go back to Thailand. She says that she twice previously visited the NTM, but each time she gave it just a cursory walk around before returning home. She is eagerly looking forward to the training sessions, anticipating that one day she will be able to share the beauty of the NTM’s architecture with her Thai friends.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai shares a memory of how one time she and Tran Tu Binh were practicing giving tours to each other, and they encountered a Taiwanese couple who insisted on hearing their Vietnamese-accented Chinese tour. The couple even asked the docents for a recommendation for a good Vietnamese restaurant, planning on going there for a meal afterwards.
At three on a Sunday afternoon, an Indonesian tour begins. Wearing a traditional royal blue kebaya, Indrawati stands outside the museum introducing its beautiful century-old architecture. The group of fellow Indonesians on the tour listen intently to her resonant and clearly enunciated Indonesian. Indrawati exudes confidence as she gestures, and her dangling earrings sway as she animatedly explains certain points. The scene is moving in a way that’s hard to put into words.
By bringing in immigrants, this century-old museum is moving a step closer toward the ideal of cultural equality. It is also continuing its work to tell stories that belong to all of the people of Taiwan.
In a first for a museum in Taiwan, the NTM printed introductory pamphlets in Indonesian and Vietnamese.
Like the Indonesian Indrawati (left photo) and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai (center photo), both of whom are already giving tours, the Thai trainee Maree (right photo) shows great passion for her work as a docent, eager to share her knowledge with her compatriots.
Like the Indonesian Indrawati (left photo) and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai (center photo), both of whom are already giving tours, the Thai trainee Maree (right photo) shows great passion for her work as a docent, eager to share her knowledge with her compatriots.
Like the Indonesian Indrawati (left photo) and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai (center photo), both of whom are already giving tours, the Thai trainee Maree (right photo) shows great passion for her work as a docent, eager to share her knowledge with her compatriots.