An investigation into the use of menus and billboards in Sapa town, Lao Cai

ISSN: 1859-2171 TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 73 
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF MENUS AND BILLBOARDS 
IN SAPA TOWN, LAO CAI 
Vu Dinh Bac
*
, Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, Duong Thi Hoang, Doan My Hanh 
TNU University of Education 
ABSTRACT 
In today’s global world, English which is used as a global means of communication, has been 
playing an important role in many sectors including science, education, medicine, engineering, 
economy, etc. English is extremely essential to the field of tourism business in many nations 
especially in Vietnam. With the increasing number of international visitors, the use of foreign 
languages plays an important role in tourism, particularly in supporting international travelers to 
travel. In fact, English is used widely in Sapa; however, the locals have made a number of 
mistakes in using English in menus and billboards. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find out 
the current state of using English in menus and billboards here to design a menus and billboards’ 
guidebook using English for shop owners in this area. Through the field investigation using 
checklist method, the study has collected the errors that menus and billboards have such as 
grammar, semantics, vocabulary selection issues, etc. in order to analyze and resolve them. The 
product of the study will be useful for menus and billboards in Sapa. 
Keywords: mistakes; menus and billboards; a menus and billboards guidebook; Sapa’s shop 
owner; checklist method. 
Received: 16/4/2019; Revised: 28/5/2019; Approved: 31/5/2019 
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH SỬ DỤNG THỰC ĐƠN VÀ BIỂN QUẢNG CÁO 
Ở THỊ TRẤN SA PA, TỈNH LÀO CAI 
Vũ Đình Bắc*, Nguyễn Thị Phương Dung, Dương Thị Hoàng, Đoàn Mỹ Hạnh 
Trường Đại học Sư phạm – ĐH Thái Nguyên 
TÓM TẮT 
Trên thế giới hiện nay, Tiếng Anh được sử dụng như một phương tiện giao tiếp toàn cầu, và đóng 
một vai trò quan trọng trong nhiều lĩnh vực bao gồm khoa học, giáo dục, y học, kỹ thuật, kinh 
tế,.... Tiếng Anh vô cùng cần thiết đối với lĩnh vực kinh doanh du lịch ở nhiều người các quốc gia 
đặc biệt là ở Việt Nam. Với số lượng khách quốc tế ngày càng tăng, việc sử dụng ngoại ngữ đóng 
một vai trò quan trọng trong du lịch, đặc biệt là hỗ trợ du khách quốc tế khi đi du lịch. Trên thực 
tế, tiếng Anh được sử dụng rộng rãi ở Sapa; tuy nhiên, người dân địa phương đã mắc một số sai 
lầm trong việc sử dụng tiếng Anh trong các thực đơn và biển quảng cáo. Do đó, mục đích của 
nghiên cứu này là tìm hiểu hiện trạng sử dụng tiếng Anh trong thực đơn và biển quảng cáo ở Sapa 
để thiết sổ tay hướng dẫn sử dụng tiếng Anh để thiết kế thực đơn và biển quảng cáo cho các chủ 
cửa hàng trong lĩnh vực này. Thông qua điều tra thực địa bằng phương pháp kiểm tra danh sách, 
nghiên cứu đã thu thập các lỗi mà các thực đơnvà biển quảng cáo có như ngữ pháp, ngữ nghĩa, các 
vấn đề lựa chọn từ vựng,  để phân tích và giải quyết chúng. Sản phẩm của nghiên cứu sẽ hữu ích 
cho các menu và biển quảng cáo ở Sapa. 
Từ khóa: lỗi; thực đơn và biển quảng cáo; sách hướng dẫn thiết kế thực đơn và biển quảng cáo; 
các chủ cửa hàng ở Sapa; phương pháp kiểm tra danh sách. 
Ngày nhận bài: 16/4/2019; Ngày hoàn thiện: 28/5/2019; Ngày duyệt đăng: 31/5/2019 
* Corresponding author. Email: bacvd@dhsptn.edu.vn 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.2019.06.712 
Vu Dinh Bac et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 74 
1. Introduction 
Foreign language plays an essential role in the 
tourism industry, especially English. The use 
of foreign language can influence 
international travellers’ satisfaction about 
products or services. Nevertheless, the 
authors have conducted an investigation into 
reality of English used in menus and 
billboards in Sapa and discovered drawbacks 
of this problem. The study shows the current 
state of using English in menus and billboards 
in a famous tourist attraction – Sapa, and 
proposes a guidebook to improve this issue. 
The fact that a vast number of mistakes are 
found after the field surveying. Through 21 
restaurants and shops the authors analyze and 
classify errors into four main groups: spelling 
errors, not parallel errors, heterogeneous 
translation and grammatical errors. The 
authors carry out this task from general to 
details in order to gain exactly data. In 
addition, authors also interview foreign 
travelers to have extra information as well as 
have objective assessment. The result of the 
conveying shows that this problem partly 
makes foreigners feel annoyed, or sometimes 
they may misunderstand the meaning of the 
words in the menus and billboards. The 
guidebook is a useful thing to help shop 
owners correct all mistakes in their menus 
and billboards. They can use the guidebook as 
a tool to compare with the originals and 
correct the errors easily. This effect a change 
that businessmen can avoid these mistakes, 
especially common ones at any time they use 
English during the working time. Besides, this 
is a good choice for local people to improve 
their knowledge of business in English as 
well as make a good impression on 
foreigners. The guidebook can be considered 
as a high quality book to refer and apply 
creatively in Sapa practical conditions. 
2. Literature review 
Menu maintains its dominant position in 
restaurant firms, since it is the core of food 
and beverage operations. Specifically, menu 
is an instructor that clearly dictates (i) what 
will be produced, (ii) what type of equipment 
and ingredients are needed, and (iii) which 
qualifications employees should have. Menu 
also functions as a communicating and selling 
tool [1]. More specifically, it communicates 
not only the food and beverage offerings, but 
also the image of the firm. Furthermore, menu 
is a base on which the customers make their 
food choices and a well designed menu can 
direct customers' attention to the items the 
firm wants to sell more [2]. 
Billboard are broadly defined as any large 
outdoor printed (or projected) sign. Artists’ 
Billboards have been a key medium or 
vehicle to explore and express the ideas and 
strategies behind the most important art 
movements over the last fifty years; 
conceptualism and dematerialization, 
temporality, appropriation and authorship 
issues, socio-political critique, institutional 
critique, direct political engagement 
(defending the voices of minorities like 
women, gays, blacks, different ethnicities, 
etc.), postmodern concerns about the 
difference between reality and representation, 
among many others (indooradvertising.org). 
The power of menus and billboards: When 
using television or radio ads, people can have 
turned off or skipped it easily However, 
menus and billboards, especially billboards 
are encountered everywhere. Iveson (2011) 
[3] pointed out how, “[It] has become the 
only mass medium capable of reaching 
consumers as they go about their everyday 
lives,” (pp. 151-174). People spend most their 
time going outside to work, and menus and 
billboards may pay their attention when they 
are on the road. Williams (2009) [4] noted in 
his study how billboards are ultimately the 
Vu Dinh Bac et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 75 
last method of communication consumers’ 
fathom before taking action. It is likely for 
consumers to see the same billboard more 
than once a day in various locations. 
Textbook authors and academic researchers 
have identified a variety of distinctive 
characteristics of billboards and outdoor 
advertising. The advantages of using 
billboards include, among other things: (1) 
potential placement of the advertisement 
close to the point of sale, (2) high frequency 
of exposure to regular commuters, (3) high 
reach, (4) 24-hour presence, (5) geographic 
flexibility for local advertisers, (6) economic 
efficiency in terms of low production costs 
and low cost per thousand exposures, (7) 
visual impact from advertisement size and 
message creativity, and (8) brand awareness. 
3. Methodology 
The study is proceeded in Sapa (Lao Cai, Viet 
Nam) which is a famous attraction in Viet 
Nam. The researchers collect samples from 
20 restaurants, 1 spa and 45 billboards. Then, 
the authors use checklist to find out the errors 
of menus and billboards. Beside using 
checklist to find out the errors, the researchers 
also interview some foreigners. They saw the 
menus then pointed out mistakes in the menus 
and billboards. Then, the foreigners give 
some advices to create better menus and 
billboards. 
4. Finding and discussion 
After the field survey about English used in 
menus and billboards in Sapa, all restaurants 
and billboards have problem in English used. 
The authors collected and analyzed data on 
the errors of twenty restaurants’ menus, one 
Spa’s menu and forty- eight restaurants’ 
billboards. According to the gathered figures, 
there are 569 errors in total and the authors 
classified these mistakes by four main 
aspects: spelling errors, not parallel errors, 
heterogeneous translation and grammatical 
errors. Going into particulars, these errors are 
enumerated and converted into percentage 
through the tables below. The tables compare 
four different errors in terms ofspelling errors, 
not parallel errors, heterogeneous translation 
and grammatical errors. 
Firstly, as can be seen from table 1, 21 
restaurants and spa and 45 billboards have a 
total mistake of 569, among them spelling 
errors are 259 errors accounted for 
approximately 45.52% which are the highest. 
Moving to grammatical errors, there is a slightly 
lower percentage of spelling errors, at 220 
errors accounted for around 38.66%. Not 
parallel are the lowest errors at only about 20 
errors related making up 3.15%, which are 
thirteen times as low as that of spelling errors. 
In terms of heterogeneous translationerrors, 
there are with the figure of 70 errors accounted 
for roughly 12.3% of the total. 
Table 1. Total errors in menus and billboards 
in Sapa 
Errors Number Frequency 
Spelling errors 259 45.52% 
Not Parallelerrors 20 3.51% 
Heterogeneous 
translationerrors 
70 12.3% 
Grammatical errors 220 38.66% 
Total 569 100% 
Secondly, table 2 shows the errors’ data of 20 
restaurants and 1 spa. The authors also 
divided these mistakes into 4 main groups in 
order to have an overview as well as compare 
each one with others. There are 511 errors in 
total. The rate of spelling errors is highest, at 
226 mistakes accounted for approximately 
44.23%, which are over seventeen times as 
high as that of not parallel errors, just 13 
errors with roughly 2.54% of the total, 
whereas heterogeneous translation errors are 
with 69 errors, only about 3 times lower than 
that of spelling ones, just 13.5%. The last one 
is grammatical errors slightly lower 
percentage of spelling errors, at 203 errors 
accounted for around 39.73%. 
Vu Dinh Bac et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 76 
Table 2. Total errors in menus in Sapa 
Errors Number Frequency 
Spelling errors 226 44.23% 
Not Parallel errors 13 2.54% 
Heterogeneous 
translation errors 
69 13.5% 
Grammatical errors 203 39.73% 
Total 511 100% 
In addition, in 569 errors, the authors also 
separated the errors of 45 billboards for 
analyzing. Spelling errors, not parallel errors, 
heterogeneous translation and grammatical 
errors with the figure is 33, 7, 1 and 17 
respectively. According to table 3, the rate of 
errors among 4 groups has relatively large 
difference. Going into details, the proportion 
of both heterogeneous translation errors and 
not parallel errors was a mere, only around 
1.72% and 12.07%, respectively. The highest 
rate of errors is spelling errors, which 
accounted for over a half of the total, are 
56.9%, followed by grammartical errors with 
the figure are 29.31%. 
Table 3. Total errors in billboards in Sapa 
Errors Number Frequency 
Spelling errors 33 56.9% 
Not Parallel errors 7 12.07% 
Heterogeneous 
translation errors 
1 1.72% 
Grammatical errors 17 29.31% 
Total 58 100% 
Table 4. Some typical restaurants having mistakes 
in menus 
Restaurant 
Number of 
mistakes 
Frequency 
H’mong BBQ 77 15.1% 
Fansipan 52 10.2% 
Bar - restaurant 3 0.6% 
The rest 
restaurants 
379 74.1% 
Total 511 100% 
As shown in table 4, in 21 restaurants and spa, 
H’mong BBQ restaurant’s menu has the 
highest errors of 77 mistakes accounted for 
approximately 15.1%, followed by Fansipan 
restaurant with the figure being lower, at 52 
errors accounted for around 10.2%. The errors 
in Bar – restaurant’s menu is the lowest, at 
only 3 mistakes with roughly 0.6% of the total. 
When analyzing errors in groups, it was found 
that the restaurants had the most errors in 
spelling errors, with 226 errors. In it, the 
menu of H’mong BBQ restaurant has the 
most spelling errors: 33 errors. The menu of 
Phuoc Lan and Viet restaurants has the 
second highest number of errors with 26 
errors about spelling. Behind the spelling 
error groups, the grammar error group has all 
203 errors. The menu of the H’mong BBQ 
restaurant still has the most grammatical 
errors with 41 errors Error groups with 
heterogeneous translation has 69 errors. 
Fansipan restaurant has the most errors and 
their menu has 10 errors. The error groups with 
not parallel only has 13 errors. Of those 13, 
Sky restaurant has 6 errors, another restaurant 
has 1-2 errors, and some restaurants do not 
make mistakes in this error group. 
In terms of grammatical errors, there are 
several different kinds of mistakes, for 
instance the locals can not distinguish which 
nouns are countable or uncountable (meats, 
salads, breads, wines, ...). Next, they make 
errors on word order, in fact some words are 
reversed their positions (fried rice Duong 
Chau, corn fried, pork spinning,pork stir-
fried, cucumber young, beef stir fried,). 
Besides, a number of phrases not only have 
no accompanying preposition but also are 
used in erroneous way (Hot pot vegetable 
Sapa mushroom, fried rice vegetable, steamed 
chicken lemon leaves, steam rice, mix fruit, 
mix salad, sauted mix vegetables, ). 
Moreover, the locals are mistaken between 
plural nouns and singular nouns (2 person, 3 
or more person, two egg, ). Furthermore, 
they use wrong grammatical structures, 
sentences do not have verbs or the verbs are 
nouns used as verbs (sour and sweet pork 
Vu Dinh Bac et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 77 
chops, “A very refreshing, easy drinking 
champagne style pale straw in color, showing 
an attractive, lifted her baceousness on the 
nose and fresh fruit flavours, finishing clean 
with delicate, creamy mouth feel and a crisp 
finish. The perfect wine for any celebration, 
slightly drier the dB Classique”, you choice 
one of the types of fried rice or noodle, ). 
Besides, spelling errors are also divided into 
three main groups: wrong words (fist, coffe, 
sweer and sour, foof, bufflo, passiion, 
mustrrooms, cappucino, chesee, stawberry, 
eeg, galic,pinaple ), devided or combined 
words by space (sand wiches, water melon, 
lemon grass, choco late, sea food, pine apple 
juice, milk shake, hotpot, Aglass), the authors 
have to identify these words by checking 
dictionary, pictures or search the Internet. 
In addition, principle error of not parallel is 
unbalanced between plural nouns and singular 
nouns (fried rice with eggs and vegetable, mix 
fruit/seasonal fruits, chicken/sandwiches/Club 
sandwich, bacon/eggs/onion/mushroom/olive, 
fried rice with vegetable/fried noodles with 
vegetables, ). 
In heterogeneous translation errors, they do 
not have equivalent meaning between English 
and Vietnamese (egg: trứng vịt lộn, egg: 
trứng nướng, bitter melon: mướp đắng nhồi 
thịt, sauted Sapa mushroom with pork: thịt 
xào hành nấm Sapa, boiled vegetable: ngồng 
xu hào luộc, boild chayote: quả su su hấp 
vừng, orange with milk: sinh tố cam, ...). 
Moreover, there are several other errors like: 
writing miscellaneous capital letters (sapa), 
using a half English and a half Vietnamese 
(Ba con, xà lách, cà chua, dưa chuột 
Mayonaise sauce, cheese. Therefore, 
foreigners misunderstand the ingredients 
having in the dishes. 
In order to have more information about the 
current state of English used in menus and 
billboards in Sapa, the authors interviewed 
one shop owner and six foreigners. The shop 
owner said that her restaurant’s menu was 
based on other restaurants’ menus or 
translated by Google Translation. Besides, the 
authors begged foreigners for commenting on 
English used in menus and billboards they 
saw. The result was these foreigners said that 
they could understand the content of menus 
and billboards by general way; nevertheless, 
they sometimes did not understand 
completely what were the meaning of some 
English words. Particulaly, the authors 
showed foreigners some pictures of 
restaurants’ menus and billboards, they found 
down many errors related to spelling and 
grammar of these. This problem affects more 
or less to owners’ business. 
There are a lot of previous researches studied 
about English used in menus and billboards; 
however, no researches carried out this field 
in Sapa; therefore, this study will contribute 
extra document for menus and billboards in 
Vietnam. Furthermore, it can be used as 
reference not only for Sapa but also for other 
tourist attractions. 
5. Conclusion 
This research bases from many menus and 
billboards in Sapa which still have many 
errors. From the collected data, there are 569 
mistakes in 21 restaurants, one spa and 45 
billboards. Especially, spelling errors account 
for approximately 45.52%. Not parallel are 
the lowest errors at only about 20 errors 
related making up 3.15%. The result of this 
issue is that foreigners sometimes can not 
understand completely the meaning of some 
English words. The researchers found that 
English language have a significant effect on 
customers intention in Sapa. Therefore, the 
study proposes a guidebook affected 
customers’ purchase intention, which no 
previous researches have done before. The 
restauranteurs can base on this English 
guidebook to correct all mistakes in their 
menus and billboards or design high quality 
ones easily. 
Vu Dinh Bac et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 73 - 78 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 78 
Base on the results of this study, it is hoped 
that the guidebook will be applied in most of 
restaurants and spa in Sapa. This product 
improves menus and billboards’ quality with 
the hope of bettering service’s quality. This 
research also wants to help restauranteurs 
avoid some common errors while using 
English in menus and billboards. This study 
was conducted in Sapa but it is hoped that it 
will be useful for other tourist attractions in 
Vietnam. 
REFERENCES 
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blowing smoke? Anempirical test of the impact 
of menu layout on item sales”. Int. J. 
Contemp.Hosp. Manag. 15, 226–231, 2003. 
[2]. Antun, J. M., Gustafson, C. M., “Menu 
analysis: design, merchandisingand pricing 
strategies used by successful restaurants and 
private clubs”. J. Nutr. Recipe Menu Dev. 3, 
81–101, 2005. 
[3]. Iveson, K. “Branded cities: Outdoor 
advertising, urban governance, and the 
outdoor media landscape”. Antipode, 44(1), 
151-174, 2011. 
[4]. Williams, D., The Arbitron National In-Car 
Study, 2009 Edition. Arbitron Inc, 1- 18. 
Retrieved from  
downloads/InCarStudy2009.pdf, 2009.