Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

recent posts

about

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: Joe Paterno

  • Dilemma and Decision

    Leaders are tasked and paid to make decisions. Hard calls. Tie-breaking calls. Go for the Gold, or take the safe route. Coach Joe Paterno had a lot of wins, but many were taken away from him because of one mis-step. Pope Benedict XVI , however, did call it quit (right timing). And Tesla–Solarcity–Space X? the jury…

  • Myopia

    It was just a few years ago when friends and I discussed the inevitable departure of Joe Paterno at Penn State. Retired? Replaced? Removed? Now, it turns out, it’s his statue that got removed. Who would have conjured up that scenario. Today, the Nittany Lions will get their verdict from the NCAA. I am hoping for…

  • Highs and lows

    Perhaps one of the places you wouldn’t like to visit these days is Happy Valley, PA. Heart of Penn State Football. Normally alumni would post home-game tickets as if they were for Albert Hall‘s Fab reunion concert. Now, it’s a place that is much condemned: punishment for Penn State, penalty for Penn State. Alumni started to…

  • Monday-morning quarterbacking

    We can’t change history, but we can sure learn from it. Just view training film, freezeframing it, and nail down some take-aways. What did we do wrong? why? what did we fail to do? Where? Avoid assigning blame. Move forward. America is all about the future. Sarah who? Sandusky who? Just do it (BTW, Nike removed…

  • Changing-transforming

    The first comes natural. The second,  involves an act of the will and intervention. Penn State will need to be transformed. Besides, it’s not the place. It’s the institutional mindset. We know this. We will do it, individually and collectively. It’s Sunday morning. I will use this day to reflect on my experience at Happy…

  • Ignore it!

    Willful ignorance, kicking the can further down the road. Hoping it lands on someone else’s front yard. Problems got ignored,  because if solved, it’s gonna cost. Penn State pedophile problem is one. One of us vs societal rule of law, subjectivity vs objectivity, warm feelings vs calm rationality. I read JoePa’s son’s op-ed in USA…

  • the right screen

    Smart phones got computer, TV and phone screens, all in once. The combined screen. I was sitting in front of a lap top and an attached large screen. For a moment, I looked at one screen while the action took place at the other. To catch on, I  need to follow the cursor to know where the…

  • Taking chances

    Peter’s Principle states that line managers are often promoted “beyond their level of competency”. In other words, a technical guy, best at his job, ends up being the boss who has to crawl his way through business dilemma and personnel issues. In life, however, some problems cannot be solved at the same level where they…

  • My Happy Valley

    A photo of  Penn Stater, eyes glued to the Collegian, brought back strong memories of the HUB (Student Union Building) and my time in Happy Valley. State College was home to me for 4 years. Happy Days. The Wall. The Corner Room. Beaver Stadium. Best ice-cream at the Creamery. In the Spring, at outdoor concert…

  • Losing one’s self

    In a recent NYT op-ed, David Brooks summed up prevailing graduation themes: find yourself, live to the fullest, be passion-focused etc.. instead of losing yourself in solving others’ problem. Even my kid knows that time passes more quickly when you are absorbed in a task. When you lose yourself, you end up finding it. Before graduating, I…