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

  • Outside the bubble

    When you are inside, you are hard-presed and unable to think. But when you are out of the bubble, it’s illuminating. You are able to look back, to gain perspectives. Bubble by definition is that which encompasses those who subscribe to its rules (deposit here, withdraw there). We got the Tulip mania in Holland, Ponzi…

  • Perceived message

    Message received often times is different from message intended. Wrong timing. Different context and stress level. Words that inadvertently trigger negative emotions. We live and learn. It’s not easy to get across, at both cognitive and emotive levels. Male are known for missing emotional signals more often than female. That’s why long distance relationships are hard.…

  • Tech talk

    NYT‘s David Brooks zoomed out to reveal the evolution of our social philosophy, from care for the Soul, to Personality then eventually to Decision-making (data deluge). This is the age of the intelligent machine. Massaging data. Algorithm and Analytic. No wonder, machine language also creeps into our daily speech. Let’s try to pin them down. First we google…

  • SWOT and ROI

    We do millions of those calculations a day (the reptilian brain). Threat? Opportunity? Fight and flight. Yet we also learn to trust, to take risks. In business or in life. Situations and circumstances, problems and people (who often times become problems). Some of us are more reflexive than others. But at long last, we will…

  • Fit for Future

    Some live behind their times. Others ahead of them. Tesla was definitely of the latter. Wireless was his thing. Lincoln was another forward-thinker, enabler and en-actor  of abolition. Our next hero is poised to deliver us from oil dependency. That day will come, as surely as the sun rises in the East and set in…

  • Memoir yet to be written

    The 70’s was coined the ME decade (Tom Wolfe). I am OK, you’re OK. By now, we should see the ME products on the shelves: from Shirley MacLaine to her brother Warren Beatty, from Rock Hudson to Ron Reagan. Last of the hardback memoirs. Last of generation ME. We now join the world, for WE ARE THE…

  • Your story

    During the 60’s, when computers were too limited for personal use, Andy Warhol had already predicted that in the future (which is NOW) each of us would have 15 minutes of fame (just like his signature Campbell soup ). Naturally, he couldn’t have predicted the rise of social media  which upend traditional broadcast media, turning it…

  • je pense

    Have you ever looked back at those goals you had set right out of college? Marriage? Career? Health? Then and Now. Perhaps they still remain the same or in reverse order. No one set out with a goal of multiple marriages. Or multiple careers. Yet it has happened, taken most of us by surprise. On a…

  • Imponderables

    Dead Valley is known to be the hottest place on Earth. Yet millions have traveled pass there on their way to Las Vegas. Venture Capitalists are also well versed in what’s so called “valley of death” i.e. when a start-up moved pass its honey-moon stage, and simply cannot sustain the burnt rate. Yet people keep trying. Then,…

  • Trash or Treasure

    With 50% youth unemployment in Spain, front-page news showed dumpster diving photos. It shouldn’t be. But it is. Life is difficult, says Scott Peck. And since when was it easy? For years, I put myself in a selfless orbit which , at times, has done much damage to myself (self-sabotage). My appetite for risks and…