My Days As A Museum Docent

Having lived in Singapore from the day I was born, I did not know how much I knew about my country's architecture, places of worship, landmarks and historical sites. 

In 2008, I decided to embark on a re-discovery of Singapore by setting myself the goal of obtaining a tourist guide licence from the Singapore Tourism Board ("STB"). Borrowing materials from a friend who had been through the tourist guide training course conducted by TMIS (Tourist Management Institute of Singapore), I set out on an intensive self-study of all the relevant materials and spent time visiting many interesting sites to familiarise myself with their history and importance.

When I thought I was ready, I booked a test date and succeeded in clearing the theory and practical tests set by TMIS at first attempt. I then went on to pass STB's practical test as a first-time candidate. This self-study pathway to a tourist guide licence was not commonly undertaken and I do not know of anyone else who has done so. I attributed my success to my deep personal interest in history and culture, a lot of hard work and of course, the useful tips that my tourist guide friend kindly provided me.

After obtaining my STB Tourist Guide Licence in 2008, I became inquisitive about the history and culture of the civilisations in Asia. I went on to sign up as a trainee docent with the Friends of the Museums ("FOM") and attended regular weekly classes, lectures and gallery visits for a few months. My fellow trainees were expatriate housewives and there were hardly any men. I had to pay for the training course but it brought me immense satisfaction. The course provided detailed information about archaeology, history and all the major cultural practices and beliefs in Asia. I finally completed the course to become a volunteer museum docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM). In my batch, I happened to be the only thorn among the roses.

I guided at least twice a month, bringing visitors to all the galleries in ACM. I advanced to join the training team to mentor and assess new museum docents who were still mostly expatriate housewives. I participated in research work on new exhibitions and contributed an article to The Passion magazine in 2011 published by FOM (Friends of the Museums). I gave talks to trainee docents and did a two hour presentation on Chinese Ceramics which was open to public at the ACM.

I later decided to expand my knowledge of Malay history and their progress in Singapore. Joining the MHC (Malay Heritage Centre) gave me a deep insight into the history and lives of early Malays and I graduated as a MHC docent. I guided for a while in MHC and continued to do so in ACM as well until I finally stopped my docent activities in 2013.

There is no end to learning and we should never stop doing so. Learning is a source of life and life is about learning. Let's live to learn and learn to live.