From knowing no English at all, a young woman in Sa Pa has transformed her life through sheer determination and a willingness to learn. In just a few years, she has built her own tourism business and created jobs for people in her village.

A journey that began from zero

Sung Thi Dinh, born in 2002, grew up in a Hmong family with four siblings in Ta Van Mong village, Ta Van commune, Lao Cai province. After completing the first semester of Grade 12, financial hardship forced her to leave school and marry early. Still, her love for learning never faded.

In 2019, she came across a three-month English class run by foreign volunteers for local residents and decided to join.

At first, she attended simply out of curiosity. She knew almost nothing about English and doubted she could ever learn it.

“When I first encountered English, I didn’t understand anything and couldn’t communicate. I was also shy about pronunciation because I was afraid of making mistakes,” she recalled.

With patient guidance from volunteers, Dinh began with simple methods: learning ten new words each day and practicing pronunciation repeatedly.

After every class, she tried to bring new vocabulary into daily life. As she gradually understood how words were used in context, her confidence grew.

“As a child, I always dreamed of sharing my ethnic culture with others. I wanted to become a tour guide,” she said.

She also realized that Sa Pa held strong potential for sustainable cultural tourism. That thought became her motivation to continue learning English.

After some time, Dinh began working as a tour guide to earn extra income while improving her language skills. The job placed her in real-life communication situations.

Every day, she met foreign visitors, listened carefully, and tried to respond. She observed how they moved their mouths to imitate pronunciation, while many guests patiently corrected her mistakes. Gradually, she became fluent in conversations.

“English truly changed my life”

After three to four months as a tour guide, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, bringing tourism in Sa Pa to a halt. To make ends meet, Dinh took on various jobs.

Two years later, when tourism recovered, she secured a position as a receptionist and manager at a homestay. For her, it was more than a job - it was another chance to interact with international visitors and keep improving her English.

During this time, she learned how to welcome guests, manage bookings, and handle operational challenges.

After a year of experience, Dinh decided to start her own tourism business. With about VND100 million (approximately US$4,100) in capital, she built a small stilt house and opened her own homestay.

In the early days, she had to teach herself how to use a computer, sell tours online, and improve her English writing. Every day, she spent between 30 minutes and one hour learning new vocabulary, steadily expanding her language skills.

“This was also the period when I learned the most. I never imagined that learning English could change me so much, until I achieved things I had never even dreamed of,” she shared.

Beyond showcasing the beauty of Sa Pa, Dinh makes a point of sharing the cultural stories of the Hmong, Dao, and Giay communities with visitors during each tour.

Today, her business has a stable flow of guests, often fully booked. She has been able to buy her own car and create jobs for around ten people, most of them women from her village.

“In the past, people here often said that girls couldn’t achieve much - that after school, they would just get married. I want to show that women can be financially independent and free to pursue what they love,” Dinh said.

In addition to running tours and creating jobs, she also opens a small English class each summer for local students. Her employees are also taught English so they can communicate with tourists.

“I hope people understand the importance of English and how it can support both work and daily life,” she said.

Looking back, Dinh describes her journey as almost dreamlike. Yet she believes her achievements come down to one simple principle: not being afraid of making mistakes and never giving up.

“When learning English or starting in tourism, I made many mistakes. But I kept studying and working hard, and became a better version of myself every day,” she said.

Thuy Nga