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

  • First love

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: First day of  my kid’s summer. First day of  being a FT Mr Mom. It happens! I reflect on Summer 75 when I was looking forward to resettling in Central Pennsylvania. America, Land of the Free. Back then, I was sure the nation was still in a state of…

  • Fish Flops – Houston, Texas

    Remarkable! New school of girls-scout cookies.

  • Jump-Start

    It’s the New Year. Let’s start with new ideas. I have noticed after living here (Saigon) for a while that there hardly is any basketball court. A city full of young people, but no basketball. I don’t play the game myself. I just jog. But for those who look for a place to make a…

  • Lost decade?!?

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Below is what I wrote back in June 2009. 3.5 years have gone by rather quickly since the depth of the Recession. _____ One thing for sure. By the time we look back at the 2000-2010 period, we will already be well into our 4-G smart phones, Web 3.0…

  • Content and Creativity.

    Time spares no one. That continuum ticks on, breath by breath, counting down and counting you out. Yet family bond endures. It has been that way for centuries: hunting and gathering, agrarian and industrial society. The very moment we fear that the machine will take over, that’s when we got Social, from Twist to Tweet.…

  • Admired Adults

    As Yahoo News flashes Most Admired Person of the Year, I can’t help reflecting on Adults I most Admired ever. From a teacher friend of my mom to complete strangers in heartland America, from a relief worker in the Pacific to far-away Africa, I remember them not so much for how much they were giving…

  • Free but not cheap

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: People have paid lips service to freedom, the defense of freedom, and the exercise of free speech. But few put any thought on the price of freedom. Freedom somehow is perceived as being free (i.e. you don’t have to pay anything, in economic terms). Actually, freedom costs a lot.…

  • deja vu

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Yesterday I reposted “Invisible Man“.  Today, it’s about “invisible hand“. There is an invisible hand that definitely plays with events in history, and this Adam-Smith-like hand seems to run out of tricks every 40 years or so, so it seems. In Understanding Vietnam (Berkeley Press), we learn that history seems…

  • Invisible man

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: UN General Secretary even admits that he has an image problem. I tried the UN web site, and clicked on Secretary General. He does have a picture standing behind a podium, addressing me the only web audience as far as I am concerned. I thought being in that important…

  • My McBite

    My first American solo supper was a big Whopper, at the time, sold by the leading Burger King. The next day, I sampled McDonald known for its fries. You may say, I got myself into a blind-fold test not unlike Coke vs Pepsi tasting. To this day, my number-one choice would be In-and-Out. But seeing…