An old woman with a conical hat in hand appears and greets them in flawless English: “Hello! Welcome to our village.”

They go up to her and carefully listen to her talk about the village. After taking them around, she brings them back to the bridge for enjoying the fresh air.

The woman is Tran Thi Dieu, 78, who has acted as a free tour guide for foreigners for the last 30 years.

She spends a typical day by sitting from 7 am to 5 pm at the bridge.

During the many festivals in Hue and the tourist season, a large number of foreigners come to the village and Dieu is at her busiest.

“The village has one more Vietnam Tourism product – Grandma Dieu,” Than Ngoc Nghia, a freelance tour guide in the village, told VnExpress.

“Many foreign visitors insist on meeting her.”

After Independence in 1975, Dieu married and had a daughter. She later moved to the south from the village, worked in a restaurant catering to foreign tourists and kept improving her English.

As she grew older, she returned to her hometown and worked in the tourism industry, gradually becoming

She has become an iconic figure these days because of the job she does at her advanced age, her excellent English in a country where learning the language is only now becoming popular, and sense of humor. 

Besides, she is a palmist.

Anna, a 17-year-old visitor from Britain, is red-faced after hearing Dieu’s predictions about her romantic life.

Anna told VnExpress: “She said I’m falling in love and my sweetheart is very handsome. We will get married and have two boys and a girl.

“I was surprised because she was right. I’m falling in love with the most handsome boy in my class.”

She does the palm-reading for free but tourists often give her some money because they enjoy it.

Some foreigners even bare their hearts to her despite meeting her for the first time.

Jane, a visitor from the US, tells her that she fears her boyfriend might abandon her because he seems to have fallen for another woman.

Dieu asks her: “Why do you lose faith because you found him with another girl? You should love with your heart, not your eyes.”

Foreign visitors pose with Grandma Dieu (Photo: VnExpress)

Learning English

Dieu used to work for the US military during the Vietnam War , washing and drying clothes for the soldiers. It was then that she began learning English. Every time her boss, an American colonel, ordered her to do something, she would ask him the meaning of each word and say after him.

Yet she cannot write a single word.

Dieu is very happy doing what she is.

“When I started as a guide, I was a bit hesitant but I found it interesting after a couple of times. Foreign tourists really like tour guides who can speak English.”

She deeply loves her hometown and wants to create a good impression about Hue among foreign visitors. She also fears that younger guides cannot tell foreign visitors properly about the village because of their limit knowledge.

“I want to know how they [foreigners] feel about my village and about the tile-roofed bridge,” she said.

Since tourism is a major aspect of the local economy, she says it is necessary to universalize English since the language plays such an important role in interacting with foreign tourists.

So during her free time she often teaches locals English.

Nguyen Thi Kinh, who has a shop selling beverages in the village, says: “Learning English was very difficult at first, but now thanks to her, I can give foreigners directions or invite them my shop.”

Grandma Tran Thi Dieu (Photo: VnExpress)

Source VnExpress