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: Shopping

  • Crossed markets

    Forbes kept praising the success of luxury brands in China while web sites in Vietnam and China mentioned “Pepper Spray on Black Friday”. Chinese-made goods, sold as lost leaders, to the first 100-early-bird shoppers. Planned scarcity. Hype-creation. Sensational, sizzling headline-grabbing video op for YouTube. We need attention. The media need it even more. (For some counter-intuitive…

  • The-Man Band

    He is the man. My man. Summer night 40 some years ago, he practiced his guitar on the roof behind my house (like a line in Your Song). Today he is still playing, whistling and singing. On previous trips, I watched him perform along with two other members in an outdoor cafe. Slowly, it winded…

  • Osmotic effect

    BlackBerry was blamed for London Summer unrest while tech proponents gave it credits for Arab Spring. Tech is just out there, with its incremental and osmotic effect. What society chooses to do with it is entirely different. There will come a time when we do need to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, paint our roofs white and…

  • Boarded up!

    The sign says ” ye Bye Austin“, where in the past, one would spot special events such as Book Reading etc… Welcome to UT, Austin campus main strip. Welcome to a new world, online, offline and virtual. If Borders and Blockbursters could not stem the tide, no independent book chain can. BTW, with the passing of…

  • Joy of the season

    If you haven’t discovered it by now, then let me remind you that children are the joy of the season.  Each day is a gift, and it is gift-wrapped with giggles and songs. I felt rejuvenated because of teenage tunes that I would otherwise have not known (Firework, Teen- age dream, The only one in…

  • The bookmark of time

    Recently I ran into a childhood friend, member of the band.  Almost 40 years in between. It were as if I found a cartoon book, with a bookmark which landed me right where we had left off. We could have been like two kids again, with passion for music and all things jr high. He…

  • Thank you Note

    We don’t thank people enough. That’s a fact. Bride and groom leave those thank-you notes at the door even pictures taken earlier in the banquet. Efficiency over gratitude. Sales people are advised to send Thank-you cards to get referrals. For job candidates, it’s a must. But what about situations other than wedding, sales referral request…

  • Vietnam still loves reading

    Huffington Post picks up a piece from Vietnam news, featuring used book shops in present day HCMC. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/used-bookstores-vietnam_n_714522.html If you don’t know, you would think the city was on wheels. But in some quiet corners, you still find students and researchers actually reading and browsing just as you would find at a B&N here. The…

  • electronics mart for Viet consumption

    “I want nobody nobody but you” blasted out from, of all places, busy Hang Xanh circle, Electronics Supermarket by Thailand. Buy a laptop, got a free phone. Flat screen tv‘s, refrigerators and karaoke systems. Should be the envy of our proverbial Maytag man since N American market has been saturated for a while. How many TV’s can you fit…

  • E-memoir

    Mark your calendar. Summer 2010 will be a bookend event. It will be Gutenberg-like. It’s the beginning of the disappearance of Revised Print Edition. It’s Google e-book store, where you can download the latest version of any book. Gone are the paper backs. Or Large Print for that matter. Select your own font. http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/49631-google-plans-summer-opening-for-e-book-store Our…