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: Facebook

  • The things they still carry

    The war novel with similar title was surprisingly good. I have known about it for a while, but couldn’t get myself to “carry” it home. Until now. Until it’s translated into Vietnamese. It’s the opposite of reading Bao Ninh‘s The Sorrows of War in English. Both novels had the same setting, same period, same conflict, same ending…

  • Twitter and Tolstoy

    My new-year resolution is to get through Tolstoy‘s monumental “War and Peace.” The characters and ethos were deliberate and elaborating (everyone wants a piece of the inheritance while the man was dying etc….). Visitors were announced at the gate (no intercom), received at party etc…. Tolstoy’s imperialistic people have time on their hands. We don’t. We tweet,…

  • Unfinished business

    Program lingers on linearly while project has its own bell-shaped form. Beginning and ending. Life is constituted of both programs and projects. Child-rearing is not a project. Schooling them is (until they come back and take over the couch). Warring is a project.  At least when we could get out and not sink deeper into…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • 30 years on

    USA Today celebrated its 30th anniversary issue, with bolder graphics and fonts (thanks! we can use larger fonts now). Those papers we pick up outside our hotel rooms when traveling on business  (to be left behind at airport lounges). Anyway. This issue features some “futurists” in each sector: urban architecture, space travel, transportation (Ford), internet (Twitter’s…

  • Socially connected

    The inner ring then the outer ones. We learn to trust, to collaborate. Great things cannot be achieved alone. That’s why the President tweets. That’s why we tweet. Do you know someone who needs our services? Or some place who is hiring so our students can apply. We need those links and those leads. People…

  • 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…

  • 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…