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: New Year

  • Content and Creativity.

    Time spares no one. That continuum ticks on, breath by breath, counting down and counting you out. Yet family bond endures. It has been that way for centuries: hunting and gathering, agrarian and industrial society. The very moment we fear that the machine will take over, that’s when we got Social, from Twist to Tweet.…

  • The ME who could’ve been

    It’s Chinese New Year morning. Except there weren’t a lot of Vietnamese around. They were here yesterday, and last week. But apparently, on this cold Sunday morning, gym wasn’t their priority. Attention is devoted to festivals and festivities at the Temples, in the park and at the fair. Like in-country counterparts, they would put on…

  • Clearing the deck

    In about ten days, the world will see an exodus of millions. Chinese New Year. Workers and students on The Last Train Home. First day of the New Year (Snake) will be dedicated to ancestors e.g. visiting their graves or wherever the family altar happens to be. From then on, neighbors visiting neighbors, catching up on…

  • Secret sauce

    I met a pianist last Sunday. When he told me he was 65, I almost flipped. He happened to be a Judo trainer as well. Wow! He looked 45. Another friend of mine, Jazz musician and software expert, also looks young for his age. What’s the secret sauce? Shirley MacLaine doesn’t look 78. You might…

  • Signs and signals

    Jackie Chan delivered again in Chinese Zodiac. The 12 Animals. The East learn to tell fortune from symbols. The West teach others to “read” people. Animals or People. We all want the advantage of foresight the next outcome. People commit to New-Year resolutions: lose weight, take up lessons in this and that, get off a…

  • Winner takes all

    We will hear a lot of ABBA‘s Happy New Year this week. But “the Winner Takes It All” speaks directly to our zeo-sum society. You lose, I win. There are only limited “chips” on the table. Scarcity causes rising values. Hot air also rises. Like New Year’s champagne bubbles. It’s time for a 2012 wrap up.…

  • Reading People

    I was approached by a guy wearing an FBI cap, asking me to buy lottery tickets. It’s hot in Vietnam this time of the year. Almost everyone wears some sorts of caps with USA on them,  helmets with the Nike vectors or a hybrid version: helmets shaped like caps. From top to toe, we send out signals…

  • mass innovation

    We got into this mess (housing bubble and derivative fallacy) en mass. Are we going to suffer in isolation? No way! With crowdsourcing, virtual forum, email, cloud etc.. we got enough in our arsenal to reverse the course. Technology (the way) and the will. That’s all we need. And a little bit of love (courtesy of…

  • Living in horror shop

    This Valentine Day, Vietnam dating scene will be scary! That is, if they picked  “House in the Alley” for a date movie. Dan rented a house in District 3, and during the course of trying to find the right film treatment, discovered something about the house in the alley which he had rented (French villa).…

  • Shame and Stigma

    Making small talks on New Year‘s morning, I mentioned various distant relatives, among whom a handsome ping-pong playing cousin of mine. I remembered him as 60’s looking, hair, glasses and short shorts. He was later married with kids before got  sent to re-education camp. While he was away, his wife had an affair and made…