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

  • Love as motivator

    Fear, fun, money, dream, passion, human spirits are all strong motivators. This series cannot end without the mentioning of love. I came across a newspaper clip which showed two skeletons (male and female), still clinging to each other. Apparently they died in an earthquake. At least the saying “live together, die alone” doesn’t apply here. Talking…

  • Money as Motivator

    Money does something to us. It both elevates and debases us. In War and Peace,  Pierre, as opposed to Prince Andrew, inherited a vast estate. Then things went south: duel, divorce and determination to “sanctify” himself by joining the Free Masonry Society. When money is involved, motivators are involved, not all pure and noble. We are shy to talk about it.…

  • Le Da – Tales of sorrow told by a Rock

    My birth certificate shows my parents in their early 40’s. No wonder my Dad’s taste for music was a bit off. One of his favorites however stood the test of time: Le Da. After all, it has something to do with the rock of ages. It’s very sentimental (Rock solid yet soft when it comes…

  • Slippery Saigon

    I went out for my morning jog in slippery Saigon.  I was hoping for cooler weather. Now that my wish was granted, I begin to have second thought: if it’s cool here, it means somewhere up North, people are freezing, or boats and houses destroyed. We live in a connected world and leave behind carbon footprints.…

  • The things they still carry

    The war novel with similar title was surprisingly good. I have known about it for a while, but couldn’t get myself to “carry” it home. Until now. Until it’s translated into Vietnamese. It’s the opposite of reading Bao Ninh‘s The Sorrows of War in English. Both novels had the same setting, same period, same conflict, same ending…

  • Unfinished business

    Program lingers on linearly while project has its own bell-shaped form. Beginning and ending. Life is constituted of both programs and projects. Child-rearing is not a project. Schooling them is (until they come back and take over the couch). Warring is a project.  At least when we could get out and not sink deeper into…

  • Reading People

    I was approached by a guy wearing an FBI cap, asking me to buy lottery tickets. It’s hot in Vietnam this time of the year. Almost everyone wears some sorts of caps with USA on them,  helmets with the Nike vectors or a hybrid version: helmets shaped like caps. From top to toe, we send out signals…

  • Life as Unfinished Book

    I brave heavy traffic to get to the book store on Nguyen Hue again. Just to find out if Murukami’s 1Q84 part II in Vietnamese was available. It hadn’t. Back and forth for nothing. But the two interwoven stories must have that crisscrossing point, a happy ending. Can’t wait to find out. And that was…

  • Stories of Suffering

    Unlike America where suffering is well hidden behind locked doors, here in Vietnam, it is in your face: lottery ticket sellers. They could be an under-age child, a blind man, or the worst case, a young man who dragged himself (both feet paralyzed) along an extremely crowded street peddling tickets. Even the Cu Chi tunnel,…

  • Tears for Connecticut

    If this blog were written in ink, it would be blotted with tears. The photo of a school parent on cell  phone crying says it all. Tears over wireless. Tears over space. Heck, I am in Vietnam, and won’t be back after Christmas. But I feel the pinch, the lump in the throat (try to…