Foreign language training in tourism human resource development

(Baonghean) - On the occasion of working with the Korean organization KOIKA, you gave us a day to "relax" with a trip from Seoul to Busan. Your tour guide is fluent in English but not Vietnamese. I was curious to "test" her level of proficiency. I asked: "Miss, when did the Korean flag come into existence? Where did it originate? And what is the meaning of this flag?". The tour guide answered in detail what I wanted to know about her country's flag.

I was satisfied with that answer and wondered how many (international) tour guides of Nghe An could answer international visitors if they asked about the red flag with a yellow star of our Fatherland? Then, many times in Nghe An, when visiting some temples and pagodas with horizontal lacquered boards and parallel sentences (in Chinese or Nom characters), I asked what those words were? What did they mean? No tour guide could answer.

Saying the above two things is to affirm that tour guides must first have the “capital” to explain to guests (domestic and international). For international guests, they must also have a foreign language to convey that “capital”! Having “capital” but not a foreign language requires the help of an interpreter. Having a foreign language but not having “capital” is considered as zero! Therefore, is it true that foreign language training is a breakthrough in developing tourism human resources?

Tourism human resources include not only tour guides, but also receptionists, waiters, chefs, managers, operators, marketers, promoters... Each such staff needs its own specialized "capital".

Back to reality, most of Nghe An's international travel centers always lack tour guides who are fluent in foreign languages. In a year, how many international tourist groups need tour guides who know English, Chinese, Thai, Lao, Cambodian, Korean, Japanese...? From there, we can see how much is lacking and how much is lacking. Let's assume: Each year an international travel center only receives one Cambodian tourist group (for example), then if that center does not have a tour guide who knows Cambodian, it is lacking, but if it has a tour guide who knows Cambodian, it may be too much! Just think simply: not having one is lacking, because sometimes having one is too much. And, if that travel center trains and "raises" such a tour guide to only use it once a year, it is such a waste! There are many ways to solve this "human resource problem":

Method 1: All 9 international travel agencies “link” and “unite” to create a common source. Sometimes this center, sometimes another center uses it for guides with foreign language skills that international guests need. This is an economical and effective way.

Method 2: While you have not yet completed the necessary foreign language training (but the demand is very low) for the tour guide as above, hire an interpreter to accompany the tour guide. Doing so will both meet the needs of the guests and save costs.

Method 3: If there is a real shortage of tour guides who are proficient in a certain foreign language, send them for training, train them now and consider training for the next 5-10 years.

However, how far and how Nghe An tourism human resources develop depends on the attraction of Nghe An tourism (both domestic and international visitors). To have strong and wide attraction, Nghe An tourism industry and tourism businesses must do a lot of work, a lot of things, not just foreign language training.

Truong Cong Anh