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: Charlie Chaplin

  • disposable people

    Industrial society once allowed to run its full course leaves behind many casualties: pollution, typhoons, unemployment and crime. Kids with early exposure to the I pad and I phone, turn near-sighted if not bi-focal. Adults with easy access to porn (free or paid) found real organic relationship something of a burden if not boredom. Back…

  • Reading Idea Man

    What would you do if you hit the PowerBall jackpot? Paul Allen, Idea Man, had several ideas: space travel, mind mapping and music. What would you do if you had no money at all? You would day-dream (travel inside your mind), visualize what you would do if  you had money (like Charlie Chaplin, leaning out of the…

  • Rock Rage

    Rage, rebellion and Rock seem to fit together. Gone were Happy Days and the Mamas & Pappas. As soon as we got color television, it were as if innocence had vanished along with the Black- and- White TV sets. Rage against the machine. Against materialism and modernity. Against the wind (symbolically speaking). Rock, or stone, needs to roll. Rolling Stone.…

  • The General Temple

    When my mom, a teacher, took me there, I was 5. This time, I  went there by myself. Happy Teacher’s Day! The Temple has always opened to seekers . On New Year‘s Eve, it’s the equivalent of Times Square . The crowd, the smell of incense burning and the long line at fortune teller’s dispensary. It…

  • Unintended use

    Charlie Chaplin uses lamp post for support, ladder for weapon and shoes for breakfast. When it comes to everyday use of common objects, there is no end. Here is my Top Ten: – shopping cart as walker – golf cart as janitorial vehicle – hand dryer as hair dryer – food freezer as mortuary (Libya) – ammunition…

  • In defense of one’s time

    After all, it’s your time, your narrative and your unrealized dreams. You and I must take ownership of this. And not hesitate to come to its defense. Whether it’s hard rock or soft rock (Seger finally went digital), hardback or paperback, boom box or boomers, software or soft drinks. We had no other choice (from my…

  • Life’s soundtrack

    I have just received a photo showing a hot-air balloon over Seattle, with me and Geoffrey in the basket. We just need a soundtrack to add to it. The puffy hot air, the wind which carried us over the lush-green scenery with Bill Gates himself living on the ground. If given a choice, I choose “Theme…

  • Marketing genius

    Charlie Chaplin would keep filming until he got it perfect (100:1 filming ratio to get the ladder to swing just right etc…). In “the Kid“, the little girl would throw rocks at windows, while our handyman walks right behind to fix them. Gillette would give away razors just to sell the blades (HP has done…

  • Where have they gone?

    Subtitle “Time to remember”. When I was in high school, the consumer society began to take shape in Vietnam: beer, cheese, cigarettes, toothpaste and vinyl music albums. Then we moved on to AKAI tape. By the time I got to the US, the first item I purchased was a portable cassette recorder (to record music…

  • My list of Influencers

    Despite their flaws (who doesn’t have one please cast the first stone), these are the people I look up to: – President Carter with his commitment to build housing for the poor – President Clinton out of that place called Hope – Jim Elliot, the late great missionary who died for his cause – Danny…