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: Overseas Vietnamese

  • Le Da – Tales of sorrow told by a Rock

    My birth certificate shows my parents in their early 40’s. No wonder my Dad’s taste for music was a bit off. One of his favorites however stood the test of time: Le Da. After all, it has something to do with the rock of ages. It’s very sentimental (Rock solid yet soft when it comes…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • How can I tell her

    Lobo was hot in Vietnam during the 70’s. Decades later, on an American stage, his Vietnamese fans even invited him to perform live for music video. Just a simple man. “I love you too much to ever start liking you, so let’s just let the story kind an end…” The contradiction and dialectic – friend and…

  • 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…

  • daring swim

    I was privy to not once or twice, but thrice, work  in non-profit capacity with displaced Vietnamese. My first time was at IndiantownGap, Pennsylvania as a Child Welfare interpreter. Later, in Hong Kong as a relief worker. And latest was in 1983, in the Philippines, where Cambodian and Vietnamese awaited their flights to the US.…

  • torn between two places

    Yahoo News had a piece about Diaspora, the return. It features Mrs Nguyen Cao Ky, who is now a proud owner of a Pho restaurant in former Saigon.  She said to have spent a few months in the US, and the rest in Vietnam. Other Viet Kieu expressed similar sentiment: “when I am here, I…

  • Dakao vs Dalat

    Both have open air market. Both got some body of water that defines the city. But that’s about it. 6 hours apart, they might as well be worlds apart. Dakao, even without the street construction, can test your patience. Dalat, even with a new bridge construction, can afford its  lake water drained for months .…

  • Mathmatically Vietnam

    Berkeley is popular with Asian students. Last weekend, I heard that an acquaintance got accepted and would be travelling to Houston to start college. But many young Vietnamese study abroad chose University of Chicago. It is no surprise  that Ngo Bao Chau, the math wiz, pitched his tent there. Windy city. Cold. Home of Oprah…

  • 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.…