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

  • On becoming

    We are diamond in rough cuts. 7 billion of  us. The stats show the costs of raising a child in the US at roughly $200,000.  With educational score cards showing flat line, while other countries are on the up tick (albeit Shanghai focused on rote learning and test preparation), policy makers might have to offshore…

  • On Seeing

    With YouTube, Skype Video and 4-G network, we will be watching a lot of video. Some content was finally “remastered” to be added on to the collective archive in the cloud. Yet, we neglect to clean our lenses and learn to see as if for the first time. The sense of wonder, curiosity, marvel, or…

  • Can I put you on “Pause”

    USA Today featured an article about how our lives are inundated with “always on” connectivity at the cost of real face to face interaction. Robert Redford was quoted in WSJ saying: “As I’ve gotten older I’ve become intensely aware of the cost of wasting time. I don’t want to be a Luddite, but I don’t…

  • Viet-Am Third Migration

    First wave: 1975, 4 “ports of entry”: Arkansas, California, Florida and Pennsylvania. Second wave: 1978 -2008 South Westward to California and Texas. Third wave: joining everyone else during this Recession to the Lone Star State, where 8% unemployment still looks better than 12% and 10% in Florida and California, respectively. Part of the American Dream…

  • VINA MOUSE

    Last week, an op-ed in the NYT lamented the death of Disney dream in America. This week, they signed a multi-million dollar deal to build HappyLand in Long An, Vietnam. The dream doesn’t die. It simply moved offshore. Imagine you can tour both Cu Chi Tunnel and HappyLand in one full sweep. The new Vietnam…

  • From sleigh to moped

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/12/christmas_vietnam Ho, Ho, Ho in Ho Chi Minh City. Toys for tots, delivered by Santa on moped. When the US pulled out of Vietnam, it played “White Christmas” on Armed Forces radio. Now, it’s peace-time Vietnam, where people enjoy every bit of cotton and confetti used to decorate the city’s manger. I was there two…

  • The road most traveled

    Fireplace (fake or real), Christmas tree (fake or real) and toy boxes (stuffed or life-sized), all put together to create a Hollywood home version of  White Christmas, the illusion that we are OK and what-and-how-much we charged at the registers won’t haunt us in late January. In America, the road most traveled has been to…

  • I want my Skype call!

    By now, we all know about our right to make a phone call when being arrested. That phone call usually is placed from a pay phone (soon to be a museum piece). Skype has been down (and slowly back up to full speed), and 26 million users worldwide felt the pinch. VoIP. Conversation chopped into…

  • Keeping up the cool

    If you watched John Lennon’s Imagine BBC documentary, you would notice George Harrison back then, and his son (as seen in a Memorial concert for George) look like twins. Next generation is here. Yes, they text and play games online. They are the greatest multi-taskers, whose watchwords are recycling, bicycling, car sharing. Next generation don’t…

  • Joy of the season

    If you haven’t discovered it by now, then let me remind you that children are the joy of the season.  Each day is a gift, and it is gift-wrapped with giggles and songs. I felt rejuvenated because of teenage tunes that I would otherwise have not known (Firework, Teen- age dream, The only one in…