That morning the community room at St. Jude's Church was full and very lively. Many people lingered after the forum to continue the dialogue. Their comments went something like this: "We should do this more often," or "We should do this on a regular basis" or "There wasn't' enough time."

Here at the Courier we've de-briefed and we've read the evaluations, and most of what participants offered as solutions to the tension over the city's changing demographics had to do with getting together, learning about cultural differences and talking about conflicts and issues—in short, more communication.

With our focus on civic journalism—helping to build community—the Courier wants to keep this dialogue going. We've brainstormed about what the next step might be, and what popped up from several sources was the idea of a column dedicated to communication about and between cultural groups. We even got an email from a forum participant suggesting the same idea.

After wrestling with what form the column would take and what its content should be, we decided we would start with social practices, expectations and courtesies, and explore how they are carried out in different cultures. This will allow us to dig deeper into each culture, including the American culture, and look at what the customs, expectations, fears and stereotypes are.

But one of the most challenging struggles has been what to call Americans. This group, after all, is made up of many different cultures—African Americans, Asian Americans, Italian Americans and so on and, of course, native American doesn't work because that's our term for American Indians. Some of us even call ourselves a Heinz 57 mix, an American expression for those of us whose ancestry is a blend of several cultures, races or nationalities. So for the purposes of this column, we decided to call those who have grown up in America and are comfortable with everyday American customs, "cultural-Americans." If there is a better term, we would love to know it.

This week debuts our first "Bridging the Culture Gap" column and we are amazed at what we've learned already. The subject for this week arose out of the forum when we learned that one reason we didn't have more Asian participants is that our cultural-American way of simply putting notices in the paper and handing out fliers may not have made Asians feel welcome.

Knowing the city wants to encourage smaller cross-cultural forums in neighborhoods, we thought "how to invite people from different cultures" would be a good subject to look into.

However, going into the community with this question led us to an even more basic problem—neighbors of different cultures simply connecting with each other. Not understanding the different cultural practices or the thinking and motivation behind them can create much misunderstanding among people living right next to each other.

Our reporter I-chun Che found out how one Cupertino block leader, a cultural-American, finds herself doing what she calls a "door dance" when she approaches new Asian immigrants. Allison Rost learned that immigrants come to the U.S. with preconceived ideas about cultural-Americans that make trust a big issue. And Americans assume that carrying a fresh baked plate of cookies is a welcoming gesture to everyone. Our column may not offer solutions for these cultural differences, but knowing them helps understanding and understanding helps dissipate judgment.

Our research for this column is even creating discussion between people of various cultures working here at the Courier, and we are becoming more conscious of the differences in our attitudes about such everyday things as opening the door to strangers or handing out business cards.

We hope the column opens discussion for our readers, too, and we welcome ideas for topics.

And of course, the Courier's letters to the editor section is always an important public forum for any issues our readers have. However, after seeing Shawn Spano, the facilitator for the A-Time-to-Talk forum, set up a trusting atmosphere for people to express themselves candidly as well listen to the others do the same, we ask our readers to keep this in mind: Writers write with respect for the things they feel passionate about and read with respect what others write. The idea is to have good, honest, heartfelt communication, not tear at each other.

Sandy Sims is the editor of The Courier. Contact her at 408.200.1055 or ssims@svcn.com.