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

  • Snow cover

    It doesn’t matter what color your roofing is or the shape of your lawn. Snow covers them all. In a blanket of white. Wet and white. Crushing underneath your feet, leaving foot prints and tire marks. The power of (snow flakes) accumulation and its compounding effect. Nature’s lesson to men: there is a season for everything. Time to…

  • Dilemma and Decision

    Leaders are tasked and paid to make decisions. Hard calls. Tie-breaking calls. Go for the Gold, or take the safe route. Coach Joe Paterno had a lot of wins, but many were taken away from him because of one mis-step. Pope Benedict XVI , however, did call it quit (right timing). And Tesla–Solarcity–Space X? the jury…

  • Impending Incident

    The North-East is once again bracing for a gathering storm. Climate change and the prolonged cold front. Satellite tracking has improved weather forecast substantially. Other things in life seem less certain e.g. financial market and food/fuel prices. The Queen of England was reported as saying “how come no one saw this coming?” (in the context of this past Recession).…

  • Shared dishes

    Suzie Wong. Suzie Q. Lazy Suzan. All the S’s in stereotypes. All boils down to a round table full of shared dishes, each could easily meet  your dai;ly cholesterol quota. Half roasted duck, half chicken ginger etc…. Hong Kong cuisine, served in Herndon (VA). I thought about Nixon’s trip to China, and how many shared dishes he tasted…

  • Most spoken “Hello”

    We will have said that word, Hello, for the millionth time before quietly slipping into the night. When the telephone was first used, Alexander Graham Bell suggested “What is asked?” for greetings. Finally, we settled for Hello. It acknowledges the other, and ourselves. Greetings as bridges, not barriers. And not just word. We look the…

  • Same river twice

    This is not about going back to your prom night, or re-entering the job market. It’s about locality and landscape that have been gentrified and occupied by new comers as time passed. I happened to be by the old neighborhood where I used to live 30 years ago: same Peking Duck restaurant, same Post Office. Even a bunch…

  • To Die Another Day

    Those gene combination keeps going, mutating and evolving. Buddistically or biologically, we aren’t going to die today. Maybe another day. But not today (I am obviously blogging still, 957 and counting). Unlike a line in American Pie “too much whiskey and wine…this will be the day that I die”. Meanwhile, in the land of the…

  • The ball that travels North

    Saw him at an Orange County club back in 1989. He was already rowdy and his parties disturbing to conservative neighbors. And now, after all these years, shows up in North Korea, on a basketball diplomacy tour. Dennis Rodman, NBA defender. HBO’s VICE has done a surprising job of casting for sports diplomacy (Google x-CEO would…

  • Stars and stunts

    They stretched the truth to “show” it in better lights (as in Argo). They twisted some arms, pushed the envelopes and burned both ends of the candle (one end is dream, the other memories). They stepped into characters, sang the chorus and spoke the lines. Light, sound, camera and …”action”. Moving pictures. Marketing of dreams and…

  • Cranking up, hanging in

    Post-holiday blues. Cabin fever. And the return of routine. And the Oscar goes to…… We weeded out unwanted inventory and unfriended people. Clearing the deck and crank up the engine. Sports Illustrated illustrates tan and skin underneath winter jacket. While Readers Digest finally suffers inDigestion. Books of the Times and books of the Post. New…