by Gia Hân 

Đào Thị Hằng, known as the “Queen of Sauce”, is a prominent name on the domestic market with her brand of the product. But she has also become known for her revolutionary teaching methods - banning the use of mobile phones and the internet six days a week while students study her English courses in the isolation of the northern mountains.

This clever woman recently spoke about a confidential project, a village she has built with her co-workers to teach children English and essential life lessons - all conducted in a strict environment with an emphasis on meditation.

Once the highest scoring student at Huế University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hằng rejected overseas scholarships to remain in the country, founding the Leader Talks Education, an English education centre in HCM City, licenserd by the Leader Talks Globe organisation in Britain and Hằng’s Fish Sauce company. 

She also runs Hama Village, an English and meditation centre for children in Đắk Nông Province. But Hằng admits that she herself learned from an excellent woman teacher, who modestly declined to give her name.. 

“Back in 2014, I helped students who had pronunciation difficulties in international schools in HCM City and Bình Dương. After 10 weeks, most students were confident in speaking, but when they got back to their studies, they ended up making the same mistakes,” said Hằng. 

"I was disappointed to think all of our efforts were wasted. It meant that if children went to the city’s English centres, they probably would not be able to communicate properly until they were 40.

"Fortunately, when I was thinking of giving up, I remembered a teacher who once showed me how to deal with the  problem. She compared the children who successfully finished the course as seeds that needed to be placed in an incubator and watered regularly until they became small seedlings. When they are strong plants, they are taken and put in the garden.

"But if planted too early, the seedlings will be affected by the sun, rain, wind, and storms, making it hard for the plants to grow. My students are the same. They are all at the seedling stage and need to be nurtured to ensure the survival rate is 100 per cent,” she said.

Hằng said this was also the way she learned English. She spent almost one year refining her English and elevated her IELTS skills before travelling abroad, like her four brothers and sisters. “After graduating from high schools or universities, all of them spent one to two years studying and focusing on English before they became English teachers.

The advice she was given by her former teacher enlightened her, providing a brighter path for herself and, eventually, her own students.

After thinking carefully about the new teaching method, Hằng decided to move to Gia Nghĩa, the capital of Central Highlands Đắk Nông Province. Fifteen students followed her to the village to live and study together. She named the village Hama, meaning Healthy and Cheerful in ethnic language.