Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

recent posts

about

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

  • Brief shinning light

    TIME and Life’s Turbulent Years (60’s) has a picture of JFK just an hour before his  death. Presidential, Camelot and eternally youthful in that Dallas morning. Another picture shows after a dip in Santa Monica. What other President would do that today. Summer time. Pool is opened. Life guards and their whistles. Sun shades and…

  • memorialising

                 

  • The genius of LinkedIn

    Verifiable profiles. Matching up people of similar professional stature and standing. Enlarging the network beyond geographical boundaries. Crowdsourcing that creates valuable content and demographics. Most solid Who’s Who list on Earth. In and of itself, LinkedIn could be the greatest company on the planet, if all members contribute their wisdom and help second degree connection connect.…

  • Moving wall

    Vietnam Wall that is. Coming to the square near you. They did not reconstruct the WWII concentration camps on wheel. But they did it with Vietnam. And on June 13th, the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda will release the full version of the Pentagon Papers, originally commissioned by then DoD Secretary McNamara. Portion of the “white…

  • What’s eating the man up inside

    Instead of more career choices, he now faces 20 choices of jeans. People are debating about a gender-free society (painting nail polish on his son’s toes). When he finally got his tie collection under control, they went “business casual” on him (Steve Ballmer couldn’t cope with this). Even though it says “Facebook”, most people just…

  • And the band plays on

    Your corporate planners booked an award trip at a remote location, complete with mixer party and Gala. Except for the entertainment part. How would you feel? Just pop in a DVD, have a few drinks? or resort to karaoke to save a few bucks? We need artists, musicians and singers. We need actors who can…

  • Re-release

    Platoon, Thelma and Louise, Star Wars etc.. this time, in Blu-ray. Translation: making money twice on the same repackaged product. It’s as if the banquet hall offers to cater for your wedding the second time around. Or your high school decides to hold a prom again (this time, it’s even more difficult to get a…

  • Paradox, dilemma and irony

    Paradox: doomsday for all is not coming, doomsday for one, anytime (especially when you are old). Dilemma: too big to fail, the book then the movie (might not make it big at the box office). Irony: got to have a job to land a job (hence, the growth of internship i.e. free  labor). Underneath it…

  • This side of doom

    Doomsday prediction did not materiale. On this side of doomsday, Southeast Asia is no longer a war zone. It’s the new fun zone (with young and upcoming demographics). LinkedIn IPO gone through the roof while IMF Chief couldn’t check in at any hostel in NY (I did not mis-spell “hostel”). Whether you live in flood zone or…

  • The Vietnamese pleasantry

    A few days ago, we were entertained with a lavish meal, of all things, in a  wedding banquet hall. Being the first customers that evening, we ate in this huge wide open space. One by one, the dishes arrived. To me, that’s a lot of cholesterol in one shot. But I couldn’t get enough of hospitality…