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: History

  • CWO – Chief Worshipping Officer

    On my first week as CEO at UVT – I met an issue none of the Business School in the US had equipped their students for: to bow or not to bow at the Fortune–God altar in the school lobby. It’s hard enough to know where the bathroom is – much less stumbling upon the…

  • All Cast

    My neighbor got off his cast today. I congratulated him, and told him, me too, had a broken arm after my first month of Kung Fu. “It’s itchy and hairy”.  I got a chuckle out of him (who would otherwise looked so mean). A few minutes later, I walked past a man with only one arm.…

  • Male vulnerability

    Behind the tatoo, the tobacco and the toughness, lies male vulnerability. I read about how the Watergate break-in was just one among a list of outrageous proposals such as kidnapping, wiretapping and high-priced hookers blackmail etc… You can’t find tougher looking bunch than those “plumbers” and their Archille’s heels. Yes, there is also female vulnerability.…

  • Rain and tears

    In the three months that I was in Vietnam, I have seen more rain and tears than 3 years in the US. When it rains, it pours. Then, it all of a sudden clears up. Branches and trees start to breathe and “branch out”. The tears’ part came from funerals that have a way to…

  • Teen boys’ dreams

    It’s all there on my friend’s web site: the seating lay-out in the classroom (three jr-high students to a table) I drew up 40 years ago. When you click on a name, it pops up a few byline and that friend’s mushy words about “summer time” or “we will never be this good as a…

  • Jobs’ off switch

    Steve Jobs hated the on-off  switch. Perhaps more so because it was a relic of electricity (Edison) and automobile manufacturers (Ford). He did not like old wine in the same wineskin, given our always-on Cloud Service in  A/C data centers. Apple chose North Carolina as a site to store music, video and the rest of its customers’…

  • Less is more

    In reading Steve Jobs, a theme keeps emerge: less is more. He cut out the fat and all its distraction. (being a veggie, he stayed true to form). His closet was full of the same long-sleeve stretch shirt that defined his personal brand. His take on wealth and money was also consistent with his 60’s philosophy. Steve…

  • Death-affirming culture

    During lunch time at my first job (Child Welfare Bureau at Indian Town Gap, PA), we threw a football, my first. That was supposed to be my induction into the Penn State culture the following Fall. Here in Vietnam, at lunch time, I walk by a casket store. As equally shocking for foreigners as my…

  • Gloria Gaynor survives in Vietnam

    When I visited the neighborhood gym, and heard “I will survive” over the speaker, I knew I was back in full swing. Scooters weaved in and out, backpackers with signature sandals (footwear was an important identifier here) and fake Heineken bootlegged in from our neighbor in the North. I will survive (recycled cook oil, recycled…

  • The more the merrier

    Next week, we welcome Earth’s 7 Billionth baby into our human family. When I was born, relatives came to the hospital to visit (as commonly observed even today, in Vietnam). B/W photos were taken and sent up North for our extended families to “take notes”. The more the merrier. Nobody cared who Malthus was. If you…