Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Author: Thang Nguyen 555

  • Chicago’s former self

    I finished the epilogue to “the Devil in the White City” longing for more. That’s how good the read was. The architects and builders reached out to the sky, and in Ferris’ case, taking the people up with him for an amusement ride in 1893. The Fair (DreamLand) later inspired DisneyLand. But not all was…

  • Adventure in my homeland

    One of my earliest  collections was the Adventure of Tin-Tin. It was a roadmap for my adventure later in life, which took me to ten countries and roughly fifty cities in North America. But nothing had prepared me for an adventure in my homeland. Certain familiar elements still exist: Chemin de Fer, Ben Thanh Market and…

  • Male figure

    We all need a hero. Someone to look up to. Even subconsciously. Most of the time, it’s our Dad. When mature enough to know there are shades of grey and our Dad had been far from perfect, we grew confused. The same happened when our leaders betrayed us. From coach to banker, from monk to priest, they…

  • Blind in wilderness

    Years ago, I took a course in Wilderness Survival. One of the classmates was a blind Korean guy.  The others all white males. We were to spend the entire five days in the White Mountain of New Hampshire, with one solo day. Our “final” was rock repelling. I kept looking in my teammate’s eyes and…

  • Death-affirming culture

    During lunch time at my first job (Child Welfare Bureau at Indian Town Gap, PA), we threw a football, my first. That was supposed to be my induction into the Penn State culture the following Fall. Here in Vietnam, at lunch time, I walk by a casket store. As equally shocking for foreigners as my…

  • Customarily Bad Luck

    It’s known urban legend here in Vietnam that you do not take a photo with three people. Someone will need to stand in to defy the odds (of bad luck). It is also bad luck that a person in the photo but was cut out. I once saw a family picture which had a missing member.…

  • Par Avion

    I almost stepped on an envelope with imprint of an airplane on the cover. It’s been a while since I saw that design. We used to write intimate letters, telling in detail what had happened in our lives, then “seal with a kiss” an envelope which had “Par Avion” on it. In fact, when Vietnam…

  • Slippery Saigon

    Someone told me that the rainy season here would end soon. Yet it is raining still. Outdoor activities like kung-fu class, xe-om, beer stalls all ceased. I seeked shelters . The trick to walk safely here is to step firmly with one foot into the sidewalk, not at its edge (which slopes down to facilitate…

  • Something to learn

    IT workshops and seminars are happening on a weekly basis here in Saigon. Monsoon season is almost over. Except for some cigarette vendors, the Sheraton  downtown could trick you into thinking you were somewhere else, like San Francisco.  Lunch was ready for a group of  CSO‘s and Software testers, uniformed attendants mingled with pony-tailed guests. Something…

  • Art expressions in most unlikely places

    You would have never thought of running into people ballroom-dancing in the park. But here in GoVap new park, where the young trees are still being nursed, and the lights barely lit up, people came out and did just that. Young and old, male and female, they came out when the heat started to ease.…