They Don't to Write a Word But Speak English

A Mong minority woman, Ly Thi Co, in the SA Xeng Village (SA Pa, Vietnam) speaks English at work and speaks Mong at home. Her Vietnamese are only enough to describe a few trivial tasks. A couple of tourists want to learn about the village, and they ask her to be a translator.

Special tour guide

She took a taxi to pick up two Swedish guests to the Sa Xeng. The path she chose this time was not a concrete road but a trail. They got off the bus on Highway 4, passing through the valley of mustard flowers and houses with moss-covered roofs hidden in the mountain mist.

They walked for more than three hours, and she told them dozens of stories on the way. From the story of the Mong people in Sa Pa breaking down mountain slopes to build terrace fields, to the rice season ends, they grow other plants. 

And those stories are entirely in English. The Mong girl has more than 15 years of experience guiding tourists in Sa Pa. As a child, she was also a street vendor who sold food on the streets so that rice cookers wouldn't have to be filled with rice noodles.