Since I started my career, in many ways I have been involved in multicultural environments. Being a student of Spanish, Russian and Portuguese, I have had contact with these cultures because of my own readings, and also because of visiting professors who came to Hungary from Spain, Portugal and Latin America. As student I had the opportunity to spend a year in Cuba which was a unique and meaningful experience. Later, as a language educator, I have received grants and awards to go abroad to conduct research, to participate in conferences, and to give talks on different topics. By visiting Spain and Portugal in particular, and by participating in conferences, I have tried to establish contact with colleagues and learn more about life and customs in other countries, with the purpose of sharing my experiences with my students. I believe, for a professor of languages, to prepare students how to avoid cultural shock is imperative. Fortunately, the College where I teach has made serious efforts in this regard, and Cross Cultural Communication is one of its strengths. In recent years I worked as a lecturer at UCLA, and my three years there afforded me the experience of living among people from the most diverse backgrounds. My classes in Advanced Spanish most clearly exemplified for me the multicultural nature of California, because my students were from Latino, European, Near Eastern, Far Eastern and Asian backgrounds. From their compositions I learned more about those countries than from my readings. But what most impressed me was the atmosphere created in these classes: there was never anything other than tolerance and a deep respect for the values of each culture. I had the same positive experience when I attended programs offered by different departments, or outside the campus and I am committed to hand it to my students and friends.