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: Vietnam

  • 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…

  • In the mirror

    Among Dylan’s many memorable lines is “you don’t need the weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blow-in”. Even without the weatherman, we can feel that things are at a boiling point. Like in the movie “the Network”, people start to open their windows and bell out “I am mad like Hell, and…

  • Noodle cultures

    Imagine you can slurp a spicy, mouth-watering noodle bowl on a rainy night. Even when it is instant, thanks to the King of Noodles (they even have a noodle museum in Yokohama). Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thailand and Vietnamese; all love this staple. http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/marketing/259168/tf-eyes-vietnam-for-noodles Take the Korean and Vietnamese samples. Both are known for North and…

  • Cafe sua da

    Lately, articles about “banh mi” started to appear in the Bay area publications. What should have accompanied those articles was Cafe sua da (Iced cafe-au-lait). The coffee chamber sat on the cup. Hot water drips down, one drip at a time, on top of condensed milk. Bitter and sweet, hot and cold. It’s a night-and-day difference from coffee…

  • Rough “road” to learning

     Please fasten your seat belts. The road to learning is rough: one has to survive the transportation to and fro, bullies and academic pressures. “it’s the same river, same ferry, and coconut trees along the banks, but, it’s different today. The difference is, …today, I am back to school” (paraphrasing a poem by Thanh Tinh).. When their…

  • Choppers that chop the seas

    The news of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky passed away brought back a long time passing. In my youth, the sound of hovering helicopters was as common as street vendors’ chants. On the war’s last day, ambassador, flag, ground-keepers, pilots and anything that moved, tried to get out to International Waters . Buses, barges and yes, choppers. Lone…

  • Attending my funeral

    The paper announced “a A student committed suicide for not passing Vietnam‘s first IBM-graded SAT“. So, my classmates showed up at my house the next morning for condolences. True story. Not having seen the column the day before, I was completely taken aback. Hence, my first exposure to bad journalism, and Vietnam’s first trial run…

  • 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…

  • Imagine, again

    By now, we all have seen the picture of Congresswoman Giffords, in glasses, recovering from a near fatal shooting. Let’s rewind to 1980, and imagine John Lennon with that same  “luck”. I can only see Lennon as the nemesis during the 80’s, if not again during the Iraq war. We would have been stronger, not…

  • East-West shopping

    Retailers in Europe figured out a way to push merchandise in this time of austerity: shop in your underwear, leave fully clothed. Meanwhile, a reporter from the BBC went to Hanoi to learn about another way of shopping: buying paper clothing for the dead (old Hanoi, pho “hang ma”). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h35lv That’s how different East and West…