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: PBS

  • The road most traveled

    Fireplace (fake or real), Christmas tree (fake or real) and toy boxes (stuffed or life-sized), all put together to create a Hollywood home version of  White Christmas, the illusion that we are OK and what-and-how-much we charged at the registers won’t haunt us in late January. In America, the road most traveled has been to…

  • South-South emergence

    A Vietnamese film director, a Japanese novelist, a Beatles title (which I read the Vietnamese translation bought in Hanoi)= Norwegian Wood. http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/norwegian-wood-film-a-labour-of-love Indian telecom companies bought out Middle Eastern counterparts to target mobile market in Africa. China beefs up its investment in construction and rare earth mining in S America, Australia and Africa. These are…

  • All things equal, take attitude

    IT engineers are back in demand. A few years ago, it was the opposite. Labor surplus creates serious contest on “Who wants to be an employee”. All things being equal, I take attitude ( one executive told me, all things equal, he takes the one with the best communication skill –  who could express him/herself…

  • The three towers

    Tower Records and Twin Towers. All came down. I remember watching it over and over in disbelief. My “where were you when Kennedy was assassinated” moment. My friend even commented on my being so upset. And I remember blurting out that a culture with Howard Stern throwing bagels at cream-cheesed butts on TV  was in…

  • strong as an ox

    I am back to the land where people work animals into daily speech: – strong as an ox – wrinkle as a monkey – dumb as a cow. Everything gets used more than once (recycled): plastic bags, banana leaves. In Understanding Vietnam ( through literature) published by Berkeley Press, the author, after surveying many well-known pieces, came to see that…

  • My SAAB story

    OK, I took a picture standing next to the convertible SAAB I won, but I took the cash option ( for grad student loan). Now, this brand, along with Pontiac and Saturn, will soon be relics of the past. We have a lot of In’s/Out’s at the end of this decade: ABC new anchor, BoA…