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

  • On Persuasion

    Lights, sound, camera, ACTION! He is back, still with “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” for an entrance and an exit punch line “the Union, as conceived and committed to by the Founding Fathers.” He systematically laid out the choices, an either-or. He mentioned the opponent’s alternate universe , where 2+2 might not = 4. Or…4 more…

  • Leaders as human

    We miss those towering figures from WWII (remember the canes, the hats? and the saying  e.g.”Never never give up”). It’s a different landscape now  (Apple, Facebook etc… with CEOs without a tie). So it goes. New world order.  New icons. New  profiles and preferences. Still, they are human. Supposedly connected with their people. Leaders of…

  • Moving on

    I read about and followed with much interest the Penn State game this past weekend. Where is Joe? First he was absent on the side line, where his rolled up pants were a fixture more than signature. Then he went up on the booth. This past Saturday, he wasn’t there either, nor was his statue.…

  • Moon Cake

    You can’t possibly finish one all by yourself. In fact, when I was a kid, I remembered it got cut up not into four but eight pieces, like we would with a Costco pizza. Slices of sweet moon cake, in all varieties. Big confectionary  revenue every year in China and Vietnam. Although it’s a Children…

  • Rain-bow start

    It’s not an optical illusion. It’s real.  Has always been there and it’s called light. But somehow, this afternoon, at the start of my run around the park, I saw a rainbow. Nature conspires to create a rainbow for Southern California. Breath-taking is its beauty. People paused and took pics from their I-phones. It’s a rare…

  • Sand and Storm

    Isaac is sweeping through the Keys in a Northwest arch as seen in previous storms. Paradise bills come due. This summer we have seen an eerie absence of tornadoes (too dried to happen). Paradise’s sand box are put on high alert. The last time, a political convention that got that much press attention before it gets…

  • Monsoon and Moonfest

    Overhearing some people talking about rain in Dalat, Vietnam‘s mountainous area, I thought back to a time and a place where innocence was shred like old skin. You see, growing up in Vietnam even in the midst of the war, was still something to be cherished. You might have neighbor’s funeral with flag draped over…

  • Unseen hands

    that manipulate interest rates, oil price, appropriate and earmark budgets for the commons. Adam Smith must be talking about the abstract “invisible hand” of a free market, while in reality, we all feel there are levers behind the scene with successive hands, tinkling and adjusting. Some are automated, by self-improving algorithms. One example of the…

  • Be sure to bring some flowers

    That voice which slows toward the end of the song as the chord changes: “If you’re going to San Francisco…” accompanied by the 60’s signature tambourine, has died. But his one-hit wonder stays, perhaps more famous than the city itself. It’s a state of mine. A period in history, with in-depth expose by Tom Hayden…

  • Enduring trends

    Technologists are enthusiasts. Their progress are documented in hockey-stick trends. Meanwhile  we as ordinary human are still reacting out of fear as if we were still living in caves. The reptilian brain vs rapid rise of chip speed, guns vs germs, technology vs anthropology! As early as 1950’s, graduates would hear something like: “boy, you get…