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

  • tricycle economy

    Easy to propel forward. Easy to stop and stand still. No fear of falling (gravity) and no incentive to pedal forward (inertia). The blessing and curse of a stimulus-dependent economy. To move  forward, one needs to fight both gravity and inertia. An extra wheel offers the illusion that things are stable and safe. But it…

  • My moving picture theme songs

    Top of the list: Cinema Paradiso. Then “It might be you” (Remember Tootsie?). Against all odds (Collin’s ” take a look at me now”). Then Top Gun. Then Ghost (The tears say it all). Pretty Woman (Rodeo Dr shopping). Gloomy Sunday (kind of eerie) Good Morning Vietnam (What a wonderful world). Road House. And let’s…

  • Pause-Reflect-Play

    We are each given a remote control. But not all of us know where the PAUSE button is. We press PLAY or oftentimes FAST FORWARD. Then we are looped in by stimuli  from all directions (Preview, Blu Ray slide show etc..). Attention grabbers and assaults to our senses. We have slowly been anesthetized. Our sensory…

  • Gloomy Sunday, Gloomy Year

    I stumbled upon the video at the library, and got to see it last night. Budapest, pre-WWII. Love triangle, hope amidst despair, and best of all, the infamous piece. It was known to have triggered a chain of suicides, albeit via vinyl record transmission. Gloomy is the word. A generation which grew up, and saw…

  • The difference a year made

    Dream with me. “This is It” tour has been a huge hit. Michael delivered once again. His 21st-century” Thriller”. British fan finally “can get their satisfaction” which the Rolling Stones couldn’t. At Music Award show, young fan would once again be thrilled and hold up the sign “This is it”. A year without the spill,…

  • Spontaneous outpour

    US fan emotion has been penned up for years. Even for Donovan himself, who said through tears, “I’ve been through a lot” . “It makes me believe in goodness. And when you try to do things the right way it’s good to see it work.” Bill Clinton showed up in the locker room (as he…

  • Avez vous le vuvuzela?

    Vietnamese soccer fans are eager to get their hands on the instrument. It’s not surprising to see Vietnamese hot for soccer. I was there when Vietnam scored at the last-minute to win over Thailand. But it is quite amusing to hear how vuvuzela is also making its way from South Africa to South Vietnam. Isn’t…

  • self-taught computing

    My first interaction with the computer was to wait in the hall way for the other group of students to finish up their project. Then it’s our turn to come in with punch cards in hand (Statistics 101). Students at the time would rather be wearing their Texas Instrument pocket calculators in a holster, ready…

  • out-texting teens

    DUI – Driving under the influence. DWT – Driving while texting. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2010/tc20100618_526096.htm And adults are found to out-text teens while driving (I remember a recent study about high school students’ SMS habit). Texting was first popular in Europe and later Asia. But people in those parts of the world use public transportation more than automobile. When…

  • Dressing up for online presence

    The author of “the everyday presentation of self” will need to completely rewrite his book for 21st-century readership. For instance, what is the equivalence of holding the door online? (Leave a larger space for Comment ?) Business and communication are out of breath, trying to catch up with network effect and the ProAm movement. How…