Public speaking class

A public speaking class is an ideal place to savor this rich broth of many cultures. As we hear others speak, we often discover the many flavors of the American experience. If you examine your own identity, you may discover that you yourself are “multicultural.”
One of your authors describes herself as “part Swedish, part Welsh, part German, and all hillbilly.” The other is Scots, Irish, and English with a dollop of Creek Indian. Just imagine the complex cultural heritage of our children! Communication scholar Dolores V. Tanno describes her cultural background as an “unfolding ethnic identity” that includes, in order of her own realization, “I am Spanish,”“I am Mexican American,”“I am Latina,” and “I am Chicana,” and expresses her joy in discovering these various identities.

As we strive to understand our own and others’ unfolding identities, we must guard against the subtle intrusion of stereotypes into our thinking. Casey Man Kong Lum has pointed out that the main problem confronted by Chinese immigrants in New York City may not be relating to the American culture, but relating to other Chinese. As he notes, there are seven major Chinese dialect groups, each with its own subgroups.’° To the extent that different languages imply different cultures, any conclusion that “The Chinese feel . . .“ or “The Chinese perspective on this problem is . . .“ must surely be a distortion, if not an outright fiction. We quickly discovered a similar problem when we taught in New Mexico. We could not simply lump together the Native American students in our classes. Were they Navajos, Apaches, or Pueblos? And if Pueblos, to which one of the more than twenty northern New Mexico Pueblos representing five different language groups did they belong?