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

  • Just the chips, mam!

    The speed of microprocessors keeps doubling every 18 months or less. We know that. But what we don’t know is how things play out, from upending the music industry (Napster) to future mobile payment and games (Amex virtual currency). When you asked people in New York, wallet or phone?  the answer was they preferred to lose their…

  • Ads during downturn

    You might think that business are spending less on advertising during the down turn. Think again. Financial, insurance and banking, all pumped more ad dollars into the system. Meanwhile, more VC‘s are of “angel” nature (this explains why Facebook can afford taking its time before next year’s IPO), the 21st century version of Independent Film…

  • Weekend Insert

    I spent many college weekends at the library. The journalism library. Work study program (certain publications need to be behind the desk. My desk.) That P/T job followed two years of working at the campus TV studio. I keep wondering how many of those communication students made it in the real world.  Has anyone landed on…

  • Web and Cable experience

    In the early days of the Web,  I asked my friend what he did online. The answer: ” I just browse from one magazine to the next (static), and listen to ethnic radio channels “. This was pre-YouTube era. We have spent an enormous amount of time curating content that is put out there: radio signals,…

  • Twice the romance

    For almost a century, we have gotten used to Hollywood‘s sunset scenes of the Pacific (they could even make Skid Row desirable). Now, fiction is trumped by recent discovery of a two-sun planet. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/215013/20110916/planet-two-suns-star-wars-kepler-16-b-tatooine-seti.htm Sunset scenes will need to be re-cut. Twice the work. But also, twice the romance. As evolving species, we will adapt,…

  • In defense of one’s time

    After all, it’s your time, your narrative and your unrealized dreams. You and I must take ownership of this. And not hesitate to come to its defense. Whether it’s hard rock or soft rock (Seger finally went digital), hardback or paperback, boom box or boomers, software or soft drinks. We had no other choice (from my…

  • Simon’s Sound of Silence

    “In restless dream I walked alone” this time, w/ out Garfunkel. Two moments of silence descended upon two reflecting pools. It was so eerie that ten years ago, of all things, Matt Lauer was interviewing a Howard Hughes biographer when the TODAY show got interrupted. I don’t think viewers ever follow up on the bio after…

  • The future, never in past tense

    Peter Jennings took a smoke break, his first in years, from 9/11 live coverage. It was the beginning of his end. The Canadian co-author of “The Century” must have studied the Wright brothers, whose invention could lift itself up into thin air albeit for just a few blocks. But he had never seen anything like the two planes…

  • Xerox, Yahoo and Google

    With the exception of Yahoo, we can pretty much use the other two as verbs i.e. to Xerox s/t or to Google it. When your company is a household “action” verb, you have it made. Yahoo got a head start, with strong brand recognition. But it flounders (even MySpace, as cool as it once was, couldn’t escape this…

  • Rough “road” to learning

     Please fasten your seat belts. The road to learning is rough: one has to survive the transportation to and fro, bullies and academic pressures. “it’s the same river, same ferry, and coconut trees along the banks, but, it’s different today. The difference is, …today, I am back to school” (paraphrasing a poem by Thanh Tinh).. When their…