This story is part of Asian American hustlean occasional series published during Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
When Daisy Hsiao stood in front of a crowd at her first Texas Dragon Toastmasters Club meeting, she felt her hands shaking.
She doesn't remember the September morning prompt. She remembers staring at the walls of a classroom at the University of Texas at Dallas, a club house, desperately trying to string words together to form sentences.
Mr. Hsiao, 51, who came to the United States in 2003, said he was well aware of his shortcomings in English. That's exactly why she decided to check out this club.
“My confidence level wasn't that high at the time,” she says. “It’s definitely low to moderate.”
The Texas Dragon Toastmasters Club, part of Toastmasters International, has been helping people like Xiao improve their English and public speaking for decades. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Richardson, home to North Texas' longest-standing Chinatown, had a growing Chinese-speaking community. Many newcomers of Asian descent were drawn to the area by companies such as Texas Instruments, which had roots in the club.
Those in the club said: dallas morning news However, weekly meetings are more than just a place to improve your English and speech. They are also shared spaces. It's a place where you can tell stories of personal struggles and improvement, and let your sometimes suppressed individuality shine through.
The group believes that Asian Americans are part of the model minority myth held by many in the community: that they all respect authority and are not exceptionally intelligent or emotional. It also functions as a means to help break through.
When Mr. Xiao started attending Texas Dragon Toastmasters meetings, he was having trouble communicating with his managers and co-workers. Xiao, who she divorced in 2022, also started dating, but she felt her personality was suppressed by language and cultural barriers.
“When I speak Mandarin, I feel that I can be more humorous and make people laugh,” Xiao said. “When I speak English, I feel that my purpose is to speak clearly so that people can understand. My diction is dry and has little humor.”
Since September, Xiao has given more than a dozen speeches in front of the club and is confident in his pronunciation and ability to convey his thoughts. And emotions. She says she sometimes practices with her boyfriend.
The club also allowed her to open up about her struggles, fears and anxieties, stories that Ms. Xiao had “hidden in her heart.”
“In Chinese culture, when you’re my age, it feels weird. [tell] People know you're divorced, right? Because some people definitely think that's a failure,” she said. “But when I joined this club, I saw people sharing their personal stories, both happy and sad, and I was moved to see that people have hearts.
“True connection means being willing to share your story with people and being able to open up.”
Jessica Wang, who joined the club in December, said she thinks the weekly meetings help members talk more personally, allowing them to get used to each other and build friendships.
Many of the members, including Xiao and Wang, are Chinese-American. Wang said they can speak freely because they share a shared identity and experience.
“They have stories that really resonate with me: immigration, visas, language barriers, cultural barriers. We all face the same things,” Wang said.
Thanks to the club, she was able to focus on the speech that she felt was lacking in her English and speak more actively. It also strengthened her relationship with her son.
Wang said she went through a period of conflict with her teenage son and was very demanding of him. She has taken on a more collaborative role, rather than a high-pressure one, she said. Ms Wang has also set up a support group where her parents meet via video call to discuss ways to reduce pressure on their children.
Wang said both she and her son have improved their emotional intelligence.
“At the beginning of this year, he just preferred to be silent. There wasn't much interaction. It was difficult to talk to him,” Wang said. “But now, every morning when I go to school, I say, 'Mom, I'm going to school.'” I feel like he's waiting for me to come and say goodbye so he can get on the bus. Masu. ”
Liang Yujun, chairman of the Texas Dragon Toastmasters, said he joined the club in September 2022 when he was in the middle of a job search. His wife joined the club two years ago to improve her professional conversation skills.
Liang said he is always confident in his speeches. The club helped him learn how to better organize communication.
“Toastmasters has a very systematic way of teaching people how to structure a speech: the beginning, body, and conclusion,” Liang said. “And these skills are actually very useful in some job interviews.”
In April, Liang took second place at the regional Toastmasters competition (there are hundreds of Toastmasters clubs nationwide and more than 14,000 worldwide). His speech was about the hardships of coming to this country just before the dot-com bubble burst, losing his job, and not being able to buy ice cream for his daughter. After all her ups and downs, twists and turns, and her tiger shark nightmare, Liang finally got the phone call she'd been waiting for and was able to buy her child the treat she'd been hoping for.
Liang said she enjoys the speech contest because it allows her to see her progress and improvement. He also feels that the Texas Dragon and his Toastmasters have become his community.
“Right now, both my wife and I are working remotely,” Liang said. “Dragon Toastmasters is the only time I get to actually meet people.”
Liang said leadership training is built into the club's structure. The rotating executive committee allows club members to gain experience in running weekly meetings.
“You have to learn how to delegate, how to communicate, how to evaluate and how to motivate,” Liang says. “If you can do that, it will make you a better leader and a better manager in the workplace.”
Grace Tyler, who worked at Texas Instruments in the early 1990s, heard that many of her Chinese-speaking colleagues had a hard time adapting to American work culture.
Some said they experienced discrimination, while others said their achievements were ignored by their managers. In 1993, she began leading a communications support group for Asian American employees at Texas Instruments. In 1997, the group was licensed to operate as the Texas Dragon Her Toastmasters Club.
Starting on the Texas Instruments campus, the club moved to its current home on the University of Texas Dallas campus in the early 2000s.
“So many talented people don't have the confidence to speak up. So much wisdom is wasted,” Tyler said. “If you don't have confidence, you can't be happy. You can't reach your potential.”
Tyler feels blessed to be able to help people like Liang, Wang, and Xiao who found their voices through Texas Dragon Toastmasters. Although the club draws people from many different parts of North Texas, Tyler said Richardson feels like the organization's permanent home.
“So many people have helped me, and I'm so grateful for the many opportunities I've had to change people's lives,” she said. “When you see them change, they become happier, more confident, and get promoted. They also learn interpersonal and leadership skills, as well as communication.”
