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: World War II

  • Improve your like-ability

    It’s common sense that when we are liked, we have more influence and opportunities. Jackson Brown says “Opportunity likes to dance with those already are on the dance floor”. Sometimes, to improve your like-ability, all you have to do is to show up. Frequent exposure increases your chances (conversely “scarcity” increases your values). Something about…

  • Chemistry: blessing and curse

    Bodies of little ones lined up on the floor (Syria). Little orphans waiting to be fed and sustained (Vietnam – Agent Orange victims) decades after the War was over. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, if we can still recall those localities. Wrong use of chemistry. Shadow effects. Masquerading rhetoric. Just as the Dow finally hit its height.…

  • Fool’s errand?

    On NYT‘s Op-Ed‘s Pages, I found a piece “Asians are too smart for their own good”. The author brought up a historical parallel between Jews’s admission at Ivy League schools back then, and Asian‘s now. She neglected another important parallel: Japanese-American got put in internment camps not too long ago. With BRIC‘s second generation, growing up in America,…

  • Romancing Saigon

    Good luck! Bit it’s better  for you to wait until the scorching heat subsides, before you have a chance. There are layers to Saigon, like you would peeling an onion. Cafe Sua Da prices fluctuate from one street corner to the next. On the main tourist strip, you still find Zippo lighters and even dog tags…

  • Leaders as human

    We miss those towering figures from WWII (remember the canes, the hats? and the saying  e.g.”Never never give up”). It’s a different landscape now  (Apple, Facebook etc… with CEOs without a tie). So it goes. New world order.  New icons. New  profiles and preferences. Still, they are human. Supposedly connected with their people. Leaders of…

  • Delayed recriprocity

    The National Cherry Blossom Parade in the Nation’s Capital.  Washington Monument with cherry blossom in the foreground: picture perfect. Newly arrived immigrants learned that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French (who coincidentally lead the Libyan incursion this time), and cherry trees, gifts from the government of Japan (twice, before and after WWII).…