Speaker Offers Intercultural Insights to Companies

Intercultural speaker Diane Asitimbay reveals how to successfully work with people from other cultures.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) October 11, 2006 -- Diane Asitimbay is speaking at the Foundation for International Cooperation this weekend, and at a time when the U.S. is debating immigrant rights, and anti-American sentiment is rising in the world, her speeches take on a heightened political relevance.

Asitimbay's passion is to build cultural competency skills in Americans at a time when many foreigners hold negative stereotypes of "The Ugly American."

In her speeches, Asitimbay humors, inspires and challenges her audience to develop successful communication strategies in order to enhance their customer service and team building.

She believes in today's competitive environment, success in the global marketplace depends on developing genuine relationships with people from other countries or cultures.

Her insights have been found useful to a wide array of organizations including the U.S. Department of State's Fulbright scholars program, the San Diego Consular Corp, and the Citizen's Diplomacy Council.

"In the U.S., we have small families that live in huge houses that are empty most of the day while we work," Asitimbay says in her characteristic penetrating wit.

Asitimbay addresses the challenges her international friends and students face adjusting to the United States, and the cultural hurdles that Americans often unknowingly erect. While sharing the views of outsiders, she offers a rare look at ourselves and a glimpse of what it feels like to be a foreigner in the U.S.

Because of her ability to enlighten and entertain audiences while dissecting our cultural quirks, Diane has been called "a powerful and important emerging cultural commentator."

Asitimbay has been a featured guest on FOX & Friends Morning News, PACE TV, and KPBS Radio, and her articles have appeared in Mobility Magazine and Hispanic.

She is the author of an irreverent cultural guide called "What's Up America? A Foreigner's Guide to Understanding Americans," which has won the "Fresh Voices 2006" Travel Guide Finalist award.

Born and raised in Detroit, Asitimbay gets her global perspective from her years as a journalist in Mexico City, her studies in Ecuador and Spain, her travels to Thailand and India, and the culture clashes with her Ecuadorian husband.

A graduate of international relations, Asitimbay has been teaching international students and helping them adjust to the United States for more than 15 years. She's bilingual in Spanish, and currently teaches at the University of California -- San Diego.

The topics companies most request for her speeches include the following:

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