Blog Post #3
During the second and the last day of VABF, I really experienced that this organization cannot be operated without a powerful team that is the volunteer. Besides, I felt I did a great job on observation — watching viewers with different dressing styles talking in different ways with kindness and observing how volunteers’ work influenced each other within the volunteer team.
It is a non-profit organization so that’s why it recruits lots of volunteers to keep each event running. Noelle and I also took part in VABF as volunteers. We worked for 4 hours during the second day, and I was assigned the task of handing out totes for around two hours and a half with a boy from whom I’ve learned a lot. To begin with I only handed totes out with smile and simply said hi to the guest, but after a while I began to notice the boy’s enthusiasm when greeting: “Welcome to Vancouver Art Book Festival! Would you like free totes?”, “I like your hair style”, “Your stickers fit you well!”, “Enjoy the show!” He also cared about the people who were leaving: “Did you purchase anything today?”, “Have a good weekend!” Those greetings were accompanied by his fervor which made the visitor’s experience even more enjoyable. He is indeed positive with a powerful voice, and this positive attitude made me brave to say some simple phrases such as “welcome to the book fair”, “enjoy the show” … It was actual progress for me, especially when people asked me some questions about VABF, I could make myself confident enough to answer them. Thus, I noticed that people got influenced by each other positively within such a group.
Moreover, I gained a lot of perspective interacting with such a variety of people. I’ve always been afraid to talk to people with a certain unique and alternative style, because I was afraid they’d be cold and brush me off. However, as I greeted them while handing out totes, to my surprise, everyone was warm-hearted, especially when they accepted the totes with appreciation of my role as a volunteer. Then I realized it is not proper to assume how a person is especially when you haven’t gotten in touch with them yet.
On the last day of VABF, Noelle and I both felt tired, as we both stood for three hours during the second day and it was even harder for me to carry lots of totes in order to prepare for handing them out. However, we got different jobs each day and we were schedules to work for the Info and Membership table this day, so I felt really excited for this new job and ignored the fatigue I felt.
On the Info table, there were programs of the VABF, free stickers, and the task for us was to hand them out if needed and to answer questions posed by the public. I got nervous and I asked myself if I need to grasp more information about VABF to answer questions without a cheat sheet. How can I organize my language well to answer well instead of making grammar mistakes which would make people confused more? However, after working for half an hour, I realized questions were more related to when and where the VABF is, and even though I answered with an accent, they didn’t mind it. One hour later, I became more active, making conversations with people so that they felt more comfortable to ask me more: “are you looking for the book fair?”, “it’s free for public. It’s around the corner, so you just have to follow this way and you will find everything!”, “please take a program and a bunch of stickers!” These are words I used often when I was working at the Info table. I realized it was the first time I enjoyed speaking English when I got here, perhaps it’s because I find myself useful helping people find the way, becoming a “local” where visitors turned into the role of traveler.
