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.

Tag: Apple

  • Coke, enduring and endearing

    The verdict is in. Marketing folks all know by now that top of the list reigns COKE. My first wage (selling Vietnamese worthless currency in Subic Bay on my way to the US a few days after the war had ended) was spent on Coke, from a vending machine. I remembered til this day the…

  • Happiness all around

    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 “deliver happiness”. Moving people up the…

  • tricycle economy

    Easy to propel forward. Easy to stop and stand still. No fear of falling (gravity) and no incentive to pedal forward (inertia). The blessing and curse of a stimulus-dependent economy. To move  forward, one needs to fight both gravity and inertia. An extra wheel offers the illusion that things are stable and safe. But it…

  • Third place, third screen, third world

    Known as the third place (away from home and work), Starbucks did not stop after opening up in Forbidden City, China. It has just opened for business in Vietnam (where the I-phone, our third screen – after TV and desktop – recently made a stirring appearance). Vietnam young consumer segment and older generations with French-cafe…

  • Reflections on connections

    The medium (social network) resembles Amazon software source code (we recommend to you these people, read their profiles). You have to open a personal account like you would at Harmony.com, and boom, you start the handshakes : “Hello, my name is…”. Personal branding 2.0. Except, when it comes to cross-cultural connection, the First and Last…

  • Nano in the wind

    Kansas didn’t expect its slow number to be a hit, but there it was: Dust in the Wind. I am privy to have met three gentlemen, all Vietnamese nano technology scientists. Through them, I learn about our next frontier, not out there, but right here e.g. coconut shells from which carbon nano tubes can be…

  • I am “FONT” of you

    The New Zealand health-care admin lady wanted to go for broke with her emphatic mode (ALL CAPS). She got what she had wanted: people’s and the court’s attention. Fired, compensated but out of a job. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/148175 To make sure forms were filled correctly, she applied a new tactic, ALL CAPS, and perhaps not without a…

  • Apple in my eyes

      Everybody loves a winner. Today’s is Apple, starts with the “A” in the alphabet. Not bad for a college drop-out who then learned calligraphy, hung out with “evangelist” Kawasaki, forced out then came back to the tune of billions. He embodied the “I” in I-phone. I remember my first encounter with personal computers, and…