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: Little Saigon

  • We can handle the truth

    We here are people who fled Vietnam in various waves (pre-1975, 1975, and post-1975) and have settled in Little Saigon, Orange County, CA. I have seen the strip transformed, from a few stores to be what it is today: patch work of mini plazas interlacing with mobile home parks, often times, reflections of the boom and…

  • Saigon vs Little Saigon

    Burger King near the heart of Little Saigon, Westminster, CA is now closed. Burger King at Tan Son Nhut Airport is now opened. Just one of the many striking contrasts e.g. scooters vs wheels nation. Skin coffee vs alley coffee, homeless folks vs lottery-ticket sellers. On and on. People in Saigon have a vague notion of…

  • Grace Jones, Jim Jones, Terry Jones

    All with a “view to a kill”. Jim Jones at least took the cool-aid himself. Terry Jones, after delaying the Quran-burning date for a few months, gave in to his arsenic urge (or attention-getting disorder). I am all for learning, from book lessons, and life lessons. Life teaches us lessons from the doing and wrongdoing of…

  • Machine of the year

    We put a five-dollar bill in, and got a quarter back. Green. Go. No toll booth collector. Just a machine. Just like you would find at laundromat, or car wash. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Its video rental machines don’t seem to catch up with Red Box and Netflix. Netflix doesn’t seem to catch up with…

  • Juxtaposing

    It just so happens that I am reading Matterhorn and Love Like Hate one after another. The former depicts the Vietnam War from a GI‘s perspective, the later from a Vietnamese viewpoint. Coincidentally, people depicted in both novels came across as victims of an uncalled-for conflict and whose lives were disrupted and devastated. I found glimpses…

  • Flamencing Vietnam

    The rhythm. The ambience. And the audience at Carmen. Different breed. Different beat. The Vietnamese singer tried hard at rolling her Latin “R”‘s, just like her predecessors at the French “un”, or the English “you”. Vietnam, and Saigon in particular, has  always been a mix of culture: Cuban band on Caravelle terrace or Carmen Club nearby.…