Hanoi youths practice foreign languages with ‘Ask Me Anything’ project

‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) is the name of a project launched last April by a 30-year-old coffee shop owner in the Vietnamese capital to provide tourists with information on anything they want to know about Hanoi and Vietnam.

The ‘guides’ of the project are young Vietnamese who would like to practice speaking foreign languages and are interested in introducing their country to foreign visitors.

The group gathers every weekend in front of the Ly Thai To Monument opposite Hoan Kiem Lake, dressed in white uniform T-shirts having the invitation ‘Ask Me Anything’ printed on them.

Handwritten on a large sheet of paper that the group always brings along with them is their description, which reads, “We are here to help [for] free… Ask me anything. Direction, cuisine, culture, history, things to do…We speak Vietnamese, English, German…”

Tourists who have questions about what to do or where to visit in Hanoi or who would like to learn more about Vietnamese culture are welcome to ask for the group’s assistance.

Tran Van Tien, the brains behind the idea, also owns a coffee shop just opposite Hoan Kiem Lake that has been popular among ‘backpackers’ for being awarded the certificate of excellence by U.S.-based travel review website TripAdvisor.

Tien said that he came up with his idea of establishing an information spot for tourists after seeing many independent tourists struggle to look for multilingual authentic information on eateries, landscapes, and historical sites worth visiting in the capital.

Meanwhile, he said, many youths in Vietnam are learning ‘mute’ foreign languages that focus heavily on grammatical points without enough exposure to real-life communication, so he has integrated the two needs into one project that was launched last April.

The working principle of Tien’s group is not to proactively approach tourists as it would violate their personal space, but instead to gather at one place and help those who ask for assistance.

“At first only a handful of volunteers answered my call [on Facebook],” Tien said. “But gradually more people knew about the project and now we have over 1,000 registered members.”

Transformation from AMA

Khanh Ly, mother of ten-year-old Nguyen Quang Minh, the youngest ‘guide’ in the group, said her son had applied to be a member after observing the group answering tourists’ questions.

“After a while, Minh became more confident when communicating with foreigners,” Ly said.

Tran Kim Oanh, an English undergraduate at Phuong Dong University in Hanoi, was excitedly talking to a tourist on Saturday afternoon.

Oanh said her shyness had kept her from communicating with foreigners for the first two years of her college life despite having aced all English exams in high school.

“Listening to the radio and watching movies in English did not help much either,” Oanh said.

After a year working for the AMA project, Oanh is now a confident ‘guide’ that can introduce in fluent English most popular tourist destinations in Hanoi.

Oanh said the nature of the work had pushed her to learn more each day, as tourists could ask the most unimaginable questions, such as “How many fish are there in Hoan Kiem Lake?” or “Who is Ly Thai To?”

According to Oanh, oftentimes the group has to deny tips from tourists since their service is free, though she said they sometimes receive small gifts or souvenirs such as a pen or some photos.

“The biggest plus of AMA is that it trains your response skills and helps improve background knowledge,” said Tran Lan Phuong, an undergraduate at the Hanoi University of Education. “Foreign visitors tend to listen attentively and want to understand a piece of information in depth, which pushes me to read and do research in order to provide them with satisfactory answers.”

Phuong said her part-time job as a private English tutor had also seen great improvements after joining AMA.

In March, the project established its first ‘branch’ in the central city of Hue with 30 volunteers who assemble every weekend after 5:00 pm at 49 Le Loi Street to help tourists.

Tien said he has no plan to drop the project despite his running the coffee shop, adding he does not want to lose a helpful playground for youths to sharpen their communication skills, a dream he has clung onto since his high school years.