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: Ho Chi Minh City

  • Goodbye Saigon

    Last night I said goodbye to a good friend. He was going back to California. We sat and listened to Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World (Vietnamese singer but if you closed your eyes you would think the black legend was there in person). I recalled a scene from Good Morning Vietnam whose subjective shot…

  • My Saigon

    Like Trinh Cong Son‘s Diem Xua, I got my own imprints of what  Saigon was like. Especially on Sundays, like today. Shaded streets, short strolls and sweet smiles. Who needs all the executive shirt with designers’ emblem on it. Instead of shirt, just smile even when you are not on camera. “Cuoi len di em oi” Just…

  • (Shinning) House in the Alley

    Instead of a snow-bound scenario in a vacated hotel, we have  a newly-wed couple of  the House in the Alley The bloody ax, the shattering glass and the medium-rare steak. We were placed immediately inside a rain storm. That fateful night, like in Misery,  the first domino that starts a chain of mishaps: married sex life,…

  • Saigon, smoke and smog

    You got to be stronger, you got to be wiser…. Cigarette companies are employing sales girls to peddle their tobacco here: buy two get a lighter etc… The girls, all well cast to fit the bill. Sampling a product, hooked for life. Best way to break in a market is via Direct Sales: Likeability, Commitment and…

  • Museum of Loss

    If you sneaked in the back street of Independence Palace here in Saigon, you would find  Cafe 30-4, named after that fateful day. Most of us have seen that 1975 tank-crashing-gate photo. But from the vantage point of the Cafe where I sat yesterday, I could only see people playing tennis and tourists walking about trying…

  • Saigon Tech Talent

    It could have been a waiting scene at Acoustics, Saigon Rock Alley. Except for the instruments and the bands. They were CEO’, CTO and Venture Capitalist. Not Bar Camp, nor Web Wednesday. It’s Mobile Monday, held on Thursday night. The cool, the calm and the co-ed. They were all there. Web to Mobile and back…

  • Celebrating Love in Saigon

    Consumer confidence is up. Spending is up. Cards, chocolate and crocodile (over beer). I thought it must be Christmas or Tet all over again. Hunting down a ticket for A House in the Alley took me to two theaters, with the only available seats at 11:20PM. Way pass my bedtime. Oh well, I tried. Supporting Vietnamese…

  • Fateful beach

    When I heard that the beach (Vung Tau) was overcrowded during the long Tet holidays, I tried to imagine the sand, the surf and the separation (forced) I endured years ago. We drove through neighborhood barbed wires and violated curfew, the day before Saigon fell, to spot escape routes. I tricked my family into stopping…

  • Time, on whose side?

    Just like an old-time movie, friends met yesterday to rehash. We mentioned briefly the passing away of our friend’s brother: nerdy, good old boy and an ATM machine service man and family man. In short, the least likely candidate to die young. Yet, he had been long gone (by now 3 years). Earth, Wind and Fire…

  • Watching Victor Vu’s film

    The Coke, (pop) corn and cinema. Heroes of Destiny. Boom, bang! karate kid! Justified violence (revenge). Boy meets girl, boy almost loses girl, boy gets girl in the end. Happy Ending. When the bewitched Empress released her grip, she broke the chain of self-perpetuated violence. It’s like cutting the credit card when you  are a…