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: Steve Jobs

  • Adventure in my homeland

    One of my earliest  collections was the Adventure of Tin-Tin. It was a roadmap for my adventure later in life, which took me to ten countries and roughly fifty cities in North America. But nothing had prepared me for an adventure in my homeland. Certain familiar elements still exist: Chemin de Fer, Ben Thanh Market and…

  • Male figure

    We all need a hero. Someone to look up to. Even subconsciously. Most of the time, it’s our Dad. When mature enough to know there are shades of grey and our Dad had been far from perfect, we grew confused. The same happened when our leaders betrayed us. From coach to banker, from monk to priest, they…

  • Anchor kids

    Although “Last Men Out” tells a story about the last Marines on the last day of Vietnam, readers still learn a great deal about the Vietnamese “group culture”. Many workers of the former US  embassy were on the list to be “chopper” out (Operation Frequent Wind). It just so happened that the gardener of the embassy came…

  • Micro Trend, Macro World

    Economy of scale, strength in numbers, linear growth. Out of the 7 Billion of us, almost half live in the cities (hints: pollution, traffic congestion, high crime rate, time crunch, shrinking quality of life, more opportunities but unsustainable). I read about China’s sewer cooking oil, crocodiles roaming the streets of Bangkok, and tent city on Wall…

  • The more the merrier

    Next week, we welcome Earth’s 7 Billionth baby into our human family. When I was born, relatives came to the hospital to visit (as commonly observed even today, in Vietnam). B/W photos were taken and sent up North for our extended families to “take notes”. The more the merrier. Nobody cared who Malthus was. If you…

  • Clothes and costumes

    Just about now, we start thinking Halloween costumes. We have tried on cotton, polyester, paper, fur, animal skin (leather) and raw meat. At work, the dress code has changed as well since IBM went “soft” (ware). Gone are the blue suit, white shirt and red tie. Who wants to upstage their CEO’s at Facebook, Google, and…

  • Inching back to life

    When we face a critical juncture on the road, we need to be decisive. A liberal arts training doesn’t hurt either. Even when two people arrived at the same conclusion, liberal art thinkers insist that between A and B, a straight line might not be the best alternative. Just the shortest. As nature would agree, it favors…

  • The future, never in past tense

    Peter Jennings took a smoke break, his first in years, from 9/11 live coverage. It was the beginning of his end. The Canadian co-author of “The Century” must have studied the Wright brothers, whose invention could lift itself up into thin air albeit for just a few blocks. But he had never seen anything like the two planes…

  • 800-GOT-PCs

    Even the machine is toast. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2091333,00.html I remember tuning in to CNBC last year to watch Steve Jobs live. The event: the I-Pad. Steve sat leisurely on stage, showing us on-screen all the touching touchy features. The Apple II inventor inadvertently declared the death of PC (not right away, but it’s the beginning of the…

  • Chinese CEOs are (also) quitting

    You know you got it right when others tried to copy your every move. An Apple-like store in China, a Sony or Microsoft retail store in the same mall (Galleria, Houston). Steven Jobs, the enchanter, is quitting as Apple has reached its apex, once surpassing Exxon (Google also had this Everest experience). Maybe some Chinese CEOs like…