visavietnam.net.vn - Cyclo drivers in Hue recently attended a training class taught
by Vietnamese lecturers from the University of Hawai’i to help them please
tourists and promote the city’s image.
The class was held because a number of cyclo
drivers recently gave the Vietnamese rickshaw a bad name by pestering tourists,
overcharging and general bad behavior, according to Nguyen Thi Kinh, director
of the Hue Humanitarian Education Center.
Kinh had raised the money to hold the class via
donations.
On Sunday, more than 350 cyclo drivers in the
central city took half a day off to attend the class, which started with a
breathing control exercise.
The drivers sat leisurely with their eyes closed
in the silence.
Le Ngoc Thao, an associate professor at the
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), the founding
college of the University of Hawai’i, said the point was to help cyclo drivers
put themselves at ease.
To make ends meet, the drivers are usually forced
to compete, and they can easily forget they are often the first Vietnamese
people that foreigners will encounter when they set foot in the country, Thao
explained.
Lecturer Le Kim Phuong said Hue's cyclo drivers
had in the past been admired by tourists for their knowledge. “The image of them reading books while waiting for
passengers once created a unique cultural characteristic of Hue,” she said.
But the image has now disappeared, she added.
According to Phuong, the drivers need to be
trained with basic English skills, communication skills and basic cultural
knowledge. In the long term, they should learn with the
support of local tourism authorities, she said.
Pham Van Lau, 69, who has been a cyclo driver for
15 years, said the class helped him and other drivers -- who usually jostled
each other for customers to make a living -- find mutual understanding and
realized how ugly it is to fight over customers.
He said there are still a large number of cyclo
drivers who want to maintain Hue's fine image in the eyes of tourists.
From Thanh Nien News
I had a great experience with them! I already knew how to drive, but needed lessons with a manual transmission, or stick shift because of the car I was purchasing.
ReplyDeleteLight Vehicle Driver Training