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: India

  • Risks and Rewards

    As the saying goes, you’ve got to enter the lion’s den to get the lion. No pain no gain. Taking risks is not something for everyone. After all, we have all the safety measures built-in to our system: from seat-belts to “frisk-machines”. Yet, in business as in life, risk is part of life, just like…

  • Learning as motivator

    From papyrus to paper, from microfiche to microphone, we use technology for knowledge transfer. Learning is a great motivator. Once started it never stops (in my death-bed, I probably still ask the attending nurse what all those charts mean, and why not this and that). Don’t believe in learning curve (as if once you got…

  • 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,…

  • The normalization of the abnormal

    Some of us who still remember the Cold War remember how easy things were: black and white. Everything else “Third World.” Now, the Third World has emerged. Hence, we live in a multi-polar world. More complicated world. More are at stake. People wheel and deal. Purchasing parity has become less of a parity. Trading up and trading…

  • People, Problems and Politics

    In that order. You just need to navigate the permutation and potential. Great things are accomplished by and through people. Yet at the same time, it’s people who drive us crazy. When a big group with more EGO than ECO, we have faction and division. Cliques and classes. In India, an “untouchable” family finally had…

  • Fit for Future

    Some live behind their times. Others ahead of them. Tesla was definitely of the latter. Wireless was his thing. Lincoln was another forward-thinker, enabler and en-actor  of abolition. Our next hero is poised to deliver us from oil dependency. That day will come, as surely as the sun rises in the East and set in…

  • Ennobling

    You don’t have to be rich or poor.  Nobility is a choice. A willful act of service. A realization that your words, which might injure someone, be best left unsaid. WWII servicemen, having seen and heard all there was to be experienced, have put themselves through school (GI Bills) and affected the change we see…

  • Nature as reminder

    Scientists just found out that Earth is much older than previously thought. It certainly has a way to maintain itself.  Remember Tsunami and Fukushima? or the Louisiana oil spill and Katrina? At the time, we thought we couldn’t bear the grunt, but one by one, they are now behind us. Same thing with this summer ‘s drought and…

  • 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…

  • Something to learn

    IT workshops and seminars are happening on a weekly basis here in Saigon. Monsoon season is almost over. Except for some cigarette vendors, the Sheraton  downtown could trick you into thinking you were somewhere else, like San Francisco.  Lunch was ready for a group of  CSO‘s and Software testers, uniformed attendants mingled with pony-tailed guests. Something…