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

  • To beat a dead horse

    Even to this day, people still using the Vietnam War as a figure of speech: “Syria will be another US‘ Vietnam” etc… It was meant to be the new Boogeyman. To scare off the children. To conjure bad imagery and bring back nightmares. In Rambo, Stallone’s rare line was “where they call Hell, I call…

  • War’s reluctant start

    It’s true a century ago with the assassination of an Austrian baron. It’s true half a century ago with one ( or two) incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin. It’s true this very Labor weekend, even when we all saw photos of little bodies – dead by chemically induced weapon. Labor Day traditionally meant as…

  • Introspect, retrospect and reflect

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Books started to come out, dissecting the effects of the Net. A new one, entitled “The Shallows, What the Internet is doing to our brains” by Nicholas Carr. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6523DV20100603?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology In retrospect, it brings to mind Neil Postman‘s “Amusing ourselves to death“, a classic critique about effects of television. (He…

  • Sustainable Vietnam

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: The leadership of World Economic Forum met in Vietnam a few years back. Concerned parties already discussed Green Vietnam. http://www.good.is/post/how-vietnam-is-going-green/ These days, if you are late into the Industrial game, at least you can leap-frog in thought leadership and learned from others’ mistakes (China is overtaking Japan as number…

  • Self-monitoring Vietnam

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Two articles on Bloomberg Business Week. One on Clicking with co-workers (productivity increase) and the other, Vietnam is finally ready for foreign investment ( with a question mark at the end). The former article is based on a study that people who work and play together make a great…

  • Chemistry: blessing and curse

    Bodies of little ones lined up on the floor (Syria). Little orphans waiting to be fed and sustained (Vietnam – Agent Orange victims) decades after the War was over. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, if we can still recall those localities. Wrong use of chemistry. Shadow effects. Masquerading rhetoric. Just as the Dow finally hit its height.…

  • The giving

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: This program has been made possible by Viewers like you, and the following foundations….. We all heard that line on PBS or NPR. Now we will see it on Fortune magazine that Giving is back in an organized way (like Barn Raising in an Amish community, or Cognitive Surplus…

  • Dressing up for online presence

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: 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…

  • Happiness all around

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: If I were the man who sold my company for almost a Billion dollars, I would go off to Rock concerts around the world, instead of sitting down to write a book. But Zappos former CEO thinks differently. He wants to go on a crusade. That crusade is to…

  • out-texting teens

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: 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…