Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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about

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: tech and multi-cultural marketing

  • body building in Saigon

    I have paid my first-month membership and come back for seven days straight. The place is tiny.  I must have timed it badly: my body peak performance coincides with peak-time traffic which weaves through the front door (bikes found their short cut artery in an alley). So I lift while listening to Michael Jackson’s CD. I…

  • Me-too

    It used to be “build it and they will come” in traditional Vietnamese society. “Huu xa tu nhien huong” (if you got reputation, people will know about it). Now, in the age of Pay per click, you have to build personal brand, to have your Unique Selling Proposition (elevator version or youtube version). Either way, young Vietnamese are…

  • Vespa in Vietnam

    The brand is revitalized and resuscitated here in Saigon.  If not for the helmets, I would think it is a replay of A Roman Holiday. Back then, the burning monk was pouring gasoline on himself and asked a younger monk to lit the fire. He earned a memorial in that intersection. Another Buddhist temple a few…

  • early imprints

    I ordered my breakfast instinctively. And it’s 8 in the morning in Vietnam. Already I feel the heat and humidity. Through the Australian school yard, I saw teachers in ao-dai. Could have been the ghost of my mom’s past. Children are obviously better fed these days. And they have gone on to game 3.0 (playing less…

  • Speed Shock: tale of an unintended acceleration

    The chairman said it best “regulators are still stuck in ‘mechanical mode’ while the car industry has gone ‘electronics.’” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_hi_te/us_toyota_electronics And as anything else, the solution is more funding, more hiring of experts etc… Transportation on steroid. At this rate of “unintended acceleration”, we might as well build “runway” not “highway”. And the NHTSA will…

  • the Nguyen

    In college, I could just tell when teachers got to my name: they couldn’t pronounce it. To save time, I just said “here”. This was Penn State, late 70’s, when a name like Carter from Georgia could barely register in Washington Belt Way. Now a random walk on the web tells me the Nguyen have…

  • disgrace and distaste

    On the news were Tiger and Elton,  one disgraceful and the other distasteful. Tiger made a public apology, not as dramatic as Jimmy Swaggart’s, but you can feel his being tormented (by sex addiction). Elton, however, started a bombshell, when jumping into conclusion that if God-Man Jesus can empathize with him (and others), then Jesus…

  • Marketing-Google-Sales

    Subtitle: the engineers who bridge the Marketing-Sales Gap. Before Google, Sales would use shot-gun approach (and work the Law of the Average) in Cold calling. Marketing would do research to uncover the mind and motive of consumers. But it has been more an art than science, at least not hard science, until Search. Customer’s post-purchase…

  • Winning is contagious!

    If you need to be motivated as I do, watch the Winter Olympics. You will share peak emotions, peak performance and peak mountain spots of Vancouver. Everybody loves a winner, and the winner loves to savor and share that moment . We empathize with their struggle, their trial and triumph. In a word, we self-project.…

  • Neda rocks on!

    I did not know Neda was a music student. Did you? The footage of her dying on the street of Tehran propelled Neda to become an icon, on par with Susan Boyle. Dreams come true for some, but fame could find its way to you in unlikely places: end of life. Citizen news. The cult…