Tag: Colleges and Universities

Old market New market

It’s a norm here in Vietnam that a certain market, after being moved to a new location, still has its old location called “cho Cu” (Old Market). My Dad and I used to go for breakfast in Cho Cu, which no longer does brisk business despite its prime location near the harbor (people are shopping at SuperMarkets, whose plastic baskets are overstuffed with stuff). Now we even have night markets such as Hanh Thong Tay, which during the day, is a “ghost town”.

http://www.eturbonews.com/27000/vietnam-wants-move-away-traditional-markets

Happy New Year, Happy New Year…..

The old markets  offer a common roof, spare ventilation and without piped-in music, whether it’s in the North as in Ham Long, or the South, as in Binh Thoi.

It is said that soothing music induces more shopping. Upscale shoppers want to assert themselves (life-style) and their social status.

In the States, Walmart has crossed-over to Supermarket’s turf (best-selling item: bananas),

Supermarkets crossed over to drug stores’ territories, and Walgreen-CVS crossed over to both.

In the alley outside where I live, people hold make-shift market in the morning: vegetables, fish, pork and fruits. The supply chain is simple: slaughter house to your house, with no refrigerated intermediaries. Chicken got charcoal-grilled inside a bamboo trunk or wrapped inside wet clay, feathers still intact.

It’s a good thing I blog about these things right after lunch (mouth-watering still). Fish glistened under the golden sun, while crabs got lined up in rows and columns neatly like an Excel spreadsheet in a tray outside a restaurant (normally when alive, these legged creatures crawl uncontrollably in all directions). An old American Indian captures this scene: when one tries to crawl out,  the others try to grab it right back in (as in Mission Impossible team rescue to highten the vertigo suspense on top of Dubai’s tallest building).

I had a late lunch next to a table full of restaurant staff. They were getting ready for their busy evening shift, Quang Trung style (celebrating Tet early, to pull off a military campaign that surprised the enemy during the Holidays).

I notice the stark difference in attitude and service between old and new markets: the mom-and-pop folks know your face if not your name.

The Supermarket staff work for a corporation, tend to be younger and can’t wait to get off work (factory style).

College students double up as city workers. College students as bus riders, and consumers of all kinds of goods (sweet and snacks) and services.

College students scramble for exams, for seats on the Last Train Home, for a table outside in the evening.

College students in Old Markets. College students work in New Markets, but can’t afford to shop there.

College students who Google but can’t connect the dots (not yet).  Educational managers whom I visited realize those gaps between High School and College levels, and between academia and active world of work.

(in ICT, this gap is even deeper when work means taking an outsourced load from overseas such as US and UK.  In that space, competitors are India and other Asian Tigers).

Welcome to the new market of talent, place and logistic cross-over (such as Boeing and I-phone, all made from parts supplied elsewhere, and later, sold back to those same countries as complete product.)

Old market, new market. Will one survive in the new century with just a warm smile and a broken back? Happy New Year, Happy New Year. May we all have our hopes, our will to try.

Let’s hope when one chapter is closed, another one will be opened. Places and time, people and opportunities: we are all in transition, from the old to the new.  So is the market. Just make sure you stay alive and hungry! Better that than be “confetti on the floor”.

Thought acquisition

Chinese shoppers and students are coming. Here is the list of top 10 countries whose students are enrolling in the US.

http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Education/2010/11/87223/ The stats also shows Mexico at number 9 (CIVET’s countries predominantly present).

Rodeo Drive and Las Vegas aside, I want to play campus tour guide.

First, the weather. Deal with it. It is world apart from the rainy and dry seasons where you are from.

It ain’t cool to carry an umbrella to avoid the sun. Tanning is in….until you get skin cancer (watch out Desperate Housewives from Atlanta!).

Second, homesickness. Yes, you will miss your friends, and occasionally your families. You will miss the food as well.

Deal with it.

McDonald has stuck to its success formula, from milkshakes to McRibs. Go there not only to use the bathroom, but also to see the efficiency model, about which Jacques Ellul has termed “technique”  (RFID, containerization, supply chain and supersizing). The rise of McDonald was credited to a milkshake maker who could make multiple servings at one time.

Third, clash of cultures. This process will have to be confronted head on. As you changed, so will the larger society you  interact with. It’s called cultural reciprocity. Don’t bow your head here. It ain’t cool.

Learn the high fives.

Do lift weights. Students coming from Asia are too small, thus come across as weak. Pick up on the sports page, and glance at People magazine.

You will forever be a minority in a predominantly but ever-changing USA (often times, with internal conflict, culminated at the Civil War, but only tugged away during the Cold War, never fully resolved ).

Lucky you, since you will be moving about campus, where blue jeans and book bags  are your uniforms.

Everybody is here to learn, to thought-acquire and to grow.

It’s a homogeneous environment, although you can feel the difference between a senior and freshman (the former occasionally wear suit-and-tie to interview on campus).

You arrived here in the US both at a right time and a wrong time. Right time because globalization is finally materialized this way by your presence (and your parent’s purses). Wrong time because the US is experiencing a prolonged downturn. Hence, don’t take it personally that everyone seems to be subdued (involuntary austerity). We have yet shaken off the effect of Madoff-ization.

I see that you have chosen to major in Business and Engineering. Great. Among the global top 10 universities, 8 are located here in the US with Harvard at the top (BTW, both MIT and Harvard are presided by women).

I know you will be selective with your time, your major and the company you hang out with (connection). Develop your social skills, and forge connection since these are and will be your soft asset. Join a club, and volunteer to be in a leadership position ( I used to “man” a book table in between classes, and play guitar at lunch time in the International Student lounge. Just to expose myself to passer-by).

Those early activities led me to be a member of the media, an international relief worker and to finally pursue a career in multi-cultural marketing and sales. Even when you came up with the best invention, you still need to convince VCs to fund your project.

Learn soft skills. Ask around and see who would be willing to be your mentor. When I started college, I got dropped in cold (Operation Frequent Wind).

Clueless and without a role model. (A bunch of us, refugee students from Vietnam, grew long hair like James Taylor – Right, you’ve got a friend !).

If I have to leave you with a parting thought, it is this: focus on your intellectual development i.e. learning to learn. That is the one thing that cannot be taken away from you (have you heard of brain stripping if you defaulted on your student loan? They do that with auto repo and home foreclosure, but not learning).

And one more thing: when you finally repatriated, could you leave behind your drive-and-ambition playbook so  America can pick up on that. After Ted Turner of CNN, and a bunch of internet giants , the US doesn’t seem to encourage any more risk-taking ( banks don’t give out loans lately).

We had been number one before dropped down to number 11 in competitiveness. Still in denial.

While you have everything to gain, your presence here has everything to give. Thanks for coming. And don’t get lonely during the holidays. I wish I can have each of you over for eggnog and apple cider. And cranberry sauce too. See, I start living in the past, back to Pilgrim’s days. I need you to help me visualize the future. It will be a crowded one with 7 billion of us in all. At this rate, we will have to send our grand kids to study on Mars. Now, that will be a shock. Future shock.