A chance encounter with a stranger as a student in Grade 8 played a major role in Ngo Tien Thanh’s decision to pursue tour guiding as a profession. Thanh recalls that while he was in school, he was unsure of possible career options and what he wanted to be in the future.
“But there was this one day when I was walking to school, I met a foreign lady who struck up a conversation with me. Although I had some difficulty communicating with her, we had a pretty fun chat, at the end of which she advised me to become a tour guide when I grew up,” he says.
This interaction left an impression on Thanh, and towards the end of his education, he started researching what skills and experience he would need to find employment as a guide. After working with Discova for 12 years, the Hanoi native considers this as one of his best life decisions and an extricable part of his current life.
“Discova has played a vital role in my tour guiding journey and has helped me considerably to achieve my ambitions. Over the years, I have been lucky to receive many opportunities to join different training courses arranged by Discova to hone and refine my tour guiding skills. Moreover, whenever there are any issues on a trip, I always receive incredible support from Discova’s staff and managers in the office, which I’m really grateful for,” he adds.
Working in the tourism industry has enabled Thanh to travel to multiple places within his country and abroad and develop a deep understanding and respect for a destination’s history and culture. Being a tour guide also allowed him to meet and interact with people from all walks of life, making him a better person who is entirely invested in taking special care of his guests so that they have the best experience in Vietnam.
He explains that while culture shock is inevitable while travelling to a foreign country, he always spends his initial time with visitors to explain certain norms in Vietnam, which might be slightly incomprehensible from a tourist’s point of view.
“For example, during an introductory conversation, Vietnamese always ask about your age, and I feel that may mislead some tourists into thinking of them as rude. However, they are unaware that people of different ages are addressed differently in Vietnam. That’s why in this country, people always ask your age so that they can address a person with respect. So, it would be short-sighted to overlook this aspect of the culture and merely say that a Vietnamese person is rude for asking your age,” he says.
When it comes to the capital city of Hanoi, Thanh recommends Discova’s Street Food Tour as a must-try experience, which is sure to please even the pickiest of eaters. According to him, a tour guide is not an ambassador for their country but is more like a bridge which connects different and diverse cultures.
“I believe a good tour guide should know how to sustainably balance the benefits to the local community and the memorable experience of tourists. At times, a guide needs to even be a mind reader and preempt a potential problem to change course accordingly,” says Thanh, who feels that a customer’s feedback is a true reflection of his work. In a seemingly imperfect world, he believes that receiving such crucial opinions (whether good or bad) is a way to refine his skills and perform better at his job.
He signs off by saying, “My hope now and for coming years is to keep working as a tour guide and a tour leader and to never stop learning, so that I can improve myself to provide even better service and experience to all visitors to Vietnam.”
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