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: Television

  • Poor substitute

    We are so connected (Google Fiber) and disconnected (from people) at the same time. Starting with TV broadcast which reduces viewership from a theatre like in “Cinema Paradiso” down to a nuclear family in their living room, to a Youtube video download for personal  use. With smart phones, we don’t have people knocking on the phone booth for their turn or get…

  • Search and Sedentary Life Style

    It’s only been a bit more than 15 years since the Internet entered our homes (You’ve Got Mail). Before that we got to run errand, with multiple stops e.g. at the library, bookstores and retail stores. Now, just Google it. Price-comparison shopping, or just ordering it online. We find friends online, learn online and practically…

  • Projecting your “Likes”

    I once met a man who got a big screen TV.  It was oversized given the small dimension of his living room. Since nearing retirement, he must have figured that it was worth the investment. He would be projecting himself onto that screen a lot, so might as well “live” large. A recent study about Facebook‘s Likes shows that on average…

  • Bleed purple!

    Red States Blue States United. Bleed purple. Gotta to reach across the aisles. Gotta to overcome complacency and condescending. The time it takes to come up with a retort could be spent for constructive use. Nobody has the right to the last word. History is dynamic and constantly being re-written. (If you read Church History…

  • Alternate Dream

    American Dream has undergone a makeover of late (maybe because the Chinese economy itself was heading for a cliff, so it needed to apply a break on lending). Whatever the underlying reason, America middle class is contracting not because of shrinking population , but mostly because of declining income and consumption. In short, the good old time…

  • 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…

  • Micro Resolution

    When you were young and with others, you wanted to start a revolution. But if you were young, but alone, you might want New Year Resolution e.g. diet, “biggest loser”, learning Spanish, pick up a new skill set. Then when you have been around the block a few times, you still think of New Year…

  • the acceleration of nearly everything

    Time heals, slowly. It makes for better wine. But it also shuts the window of opportunity. The moment we leap (even before we look), we defy fate. No regrets. In “Blink”, the author presents a clear case for intuition and conclusion. It’s the opposite of SWOT with no action =  slow-burn effect that kills the frog (paralysis…

  • Camel, container and call center

    Each represents a distribution venue in various era. Now, the man behind “As Seen On TV” wants to do away with call center altogether. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/business/media/30adco.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1309474819-WalLu/L4Q4AdzzCWZqpw4g Essentially, he just keeps the container, while relying on the “cloud” and the credit card to elicit impulse buying. Welcome to the future, where pundits who blamed off-shored call centers…

  • The Columbo close

    Many of us in Sales would remember and practice the Columbo close “Before I go, just one more thing….” (then we would go ahead with a Summary close, with one foot still in the prospect’s door). With two years, and 555 blogs, I thought I was done with it. But then, just one more thing….. Peter…