If you’re afraid of going to a mountainous region just because there won’t be anyone can understand your language, then don’t be so anymore when being in tours to the beautiful Sapa! Because here, local women can speak English quite fluently, they can understand and communicate with you very well. Are you curious why in such remote region like Sapa people can manage to have a great foreign language skill like that?
The ethnic minority in Sapa
It’s thanks to the development of tourism in the region, indigenous people have the opportunity to practice their foreign language skills every day.
Lu Thi Pinh in Ta Van Giay hamlet, Ta Van commune, Sapa district is one of the first places to have homestays in Muong Hoa – one of the five most beautiful valleys in Vietnam. From the first time it organized homestay tours for tourists up to now, there are more and more tourists come here and take homestays. And therefore, some local people here have come up with an awesome idea to attract more and more tourists to come and bring along a big source of economical benefits, that’s building a stilt house for tourists who want to stay overnight in the hamlet. Homestays are gradually spreading with over half of the more than 100 households in the hamlet offering this service.
The stilt houses for homestay tours in Muong Hoa
With Sapa homestay tours, visitors will be provided an opportunity to engage in daily activities with the house’s owners. They can join locals in their meals, with unique and tasty specialties such as thang co (a hot pot of horse meat, beef, bones and viscera cooked together), fish, chicken, wild pork, corn cake, and banh day (round glutinous cake). And when the night falls, visitors can join their hosts in building a campfire and playing khen (traditional bamboo pipe flute).
The specialties that you can find in Sapa
The blossoming of homestay tours also makes the kids in the hamlet become criers to attract visitors to their houses.
As the homestay model is growing quickly, the commune’s authorities have opened foreign language classes for locals to improve their communication skills.
English teachers are invited to the class once a month on Sundays. In regular classes, learners practice English in groups; each includes two or three members and is led by a group leader.
In an English class in Sapa
Classes often last the whole evening, where learners exercise basic communication skills and learn to talk about traditional customs, tourism and nature of their locality.
This model not only contributes to promoting the cultural essence and daily practices of local people, but also helps them improve their income and develop communication skills among children.
