MY UNFORGETABLE EXPERIENCES IN HA GIANG AS A TOURGUIDE APPRENTICE

[ 29/05/2019 00:00 AM | Lượt xem: 352 ]

Ha Giang, in my mind, was the beautiful mountainous place with the breath-taking sceneries, the unique cultures and the most friendly people. It was just imagination if I would not have chance to go there. Definetely I was lucky when I was sent there by Faculty of Language and Culture of Thai Nguyen University of Sciences as an apprentice for a month. This was the first time I had been in a such wonderful site. Arriving in Ha Giang, I found it much more gorgeous than in the pictures. There were the dreamy roads around the spectacular mountains. If you are a person of adventure, I highly recommend you to visit the sights by motorbike. And moreover, there are lots of stones in the superlatively high mountains in various shapes everywhere.

Ha Giang is the home of 17 Vietnam ethnic groups, mostly Mong people. I was, the first time, wearing traditional clothes of Mong people, weaved with tiny buckwheat flowers - Ha Giang tourism symbol.

My internship lasted for one month in March, 2019. The short stay was filled with sweat memories that I can never forget. I am actually the junior apprentice, lacking of job knowledge and skills. But with the help of the professional instructors and favorable environment, the practice was very successful as a truly exhilarating experience. Before the trip to Ha Giang, I had imagined that I had only to present to all tourists; however I worked a lot, from tidying up around to dealing with tourists complaints. It probably was tough for the first but, after several times, it was no longer strange to me and my buddies. I was familiar with the work day by day and I even found it very exciting. During the time there, I had some opportunities to try doing both onsite tour-guiding and whole-trip tour-guiding. To be honest, I adored whole-trip tour-guiding rather than onsite tour-guiding, perhaps because I am a person who loves challenges and demanding jobs. However, it was also rewarding because I can experience more as well as learn about particular skills and have chance to practice my English. Onsite tour-guiding is also interesting on the ground that you can deeply understand about the place where you stay. So, all in all, I love all these two types of jobs.

In fact, we were rather embarrassed for the first practice. My friends and I, at first, did not know how to sell tickets or how to attract more tourists attention and other things. Now it is much better. I learnt from the instructor that we have to listen to the tourists first. If you were wrong, you could apologize sincerely. Or if they ask you a question that is out of your knowledge, you should know some ways to treat their curiosity. I certainly need to enrich my knowledge and need to attract more travelers to make a good profit on tourism. By observing what and how the locals did, I think I can use some same ways to develop tourism in my hometown.

Tourism is definitely brimful of professionalism and enthusiasm. It means you will have face with a number of people from different countries, so your skills and zeal are specially important. Besides, it is really advantageous if you can speak some foreign languages. I am sure if you can speak English or French fluently, you can easily find a job in Ha Giang or Sapa because there are a lot of English and French tourists there. But if you speak Chinese or Japanese, you ought to go to somewhere else to use the languages. And a student of English language needs more and more practice to better it. At the same time, I need to learn to be an expert of Vietnamese culture and ethnic cultures if I want more attraction from the tourists.

Finally, Ha Giang has given me so many unforgettable experiences and special feelings. They become my valuable lessons and make me more grow up. By the way, I would really appreciate all the staffs, my brothers and sisters from the Culture and Information of Dong Van district Departure who have kindly treated me and my classmates. I am so grateful to Lung Cam Culture and Tourism Village Management Board for their wonderful support. And thank you, my supervisor-instructor Mr. Tung and my teachers, Ms. Thao and Ms.Thanh, who gave me a lot of meaningful time and lessons.

Thank you all so much!

These are some of my images in Ha Giang:

Ma Van Thien, English for Toursm, Course 14