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: Pennsylvania State University

  • Repatriation

    You can take a boy out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the boy. This happens to me, not once, but twice. Culture shock upon culture shock! until I feel numbed. I jog on the street full of motorbikes (nice people would say “Co len”, bad people would try to run me…

  • More

    When reading the ABOUT tab on some web sites, I got no idea what the companies were ABOUT. Apparently they sell some intangible services, such as Human Development, but were afraid to say so. Others would try to get out of the box they found themselves in “we are more than just a hardware company, we…

  • Music as Motivator

    Old Time Rock and Roll, Get Ready, I Just Want to Celebrate etc.. will “soothe your soul”. Take time out to massage the affective part of yourself. Ancient culture or atomized culture, we all need to gather around the “fire”, to warm up, to celebrate and to belong. Music as equalizer, as motivator. A call…

  • Matchmaking

    In Vietnam, one of the first questions is What animal represents you? (12 symbols of the zodiac). Second question is, how come you are single. Find someone to alleviate your miserable state of being single (collective society). Third and logical conclusion: find someone, whose symbol matches yours, yin-yan, fire and ice, earth and sky etc……

  • Moving on

    I read about and followed with much interest the Penn State game this past weekend. Where is Joe? First he was absent on the side line, where his rolled up pants were a fixture more than signature. Then he went up on the booth. This past Saturday, he wasn’t there either, nor was his statue.…

  • 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…

  • 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…