The role that international businesses can play in local foreign language instruction is described based on experiences in teaching French at a women's college in Virginia. Personal contacts have brought French businessmen into the classroom and have provided students with an understanding of the relevance of their studies, provided an outreach into the real world, and created an opportunity for discussions about cultural similarities and differences. This paper summarizes those contacts and then discusses the American business environment from the perspective of French businessmen in America. Topics include working conditions such as working hours and vacations, human relationships such as forms of address and use of first names, social philosophy such as "esprit de corps" and employer/employee relationships, and the cultural environment. It is concluded that individuality and optimism are important values in both French and American cultures but they are expressed differently. (LB)