The ethnic minority people in my village are very friendly. A few months ago, I journeyed to Lao Cai, a predominantly ethnic minority area in Vietnam’s Northern Mountains, to supervise a pilot survey. One older man I encountered—typical of many we saw—was a subsistence farmer with minimal education who spoke only his native language and had barely ventured beyond his village.
Members of ethnic minority groups make up 15 percent of the country’s population but account for 70 percent of the extreme poor (measured using a national extreme poverty line). During Vietnam’s two decades of rapid growth, members of ethnic minority groups in the country have experienced overall improvements in their standards of living, but their gains have lagged behind those of the Kinh majority. 
The  
ethnic
  minority
  people
 in my village are  
very
 friendly. A few months ago, I journeyed to Lao  
Cai
, a  
predominantly
  ethnic
  minority
 area in Vietnam’s Northern Mountains, to supervise a pilot survey. One older  
man
 I encountered—typical of  
many
 we  
saw
—was a subsistence farmer with minimal education who spoke  
only
 his native language and had  
barely
 ventured beyond his village.
Members of  
ethnic
  minority
 groups  
make
 up 15 percent of the country’s population  
but
 account for 70 percent of the extreme poor (measured using a national extreme poverty line). During Vietnam’s two decades of rapid growth, members of  
ethnic
  minority
 groups in the country have experienced  
overall
 improvements in their standards of living,  
but
 their gains have lagged behind those of the  
Kinh
 majority.