"Particularly at the present time, it is important to us to present Arab countries in a positive light. There is so much negative writing in the media, we seize the opportunities we can to portray our countries in favorable aspects," said Lynn Hannachi.
Lynn is an articulate, highly educated American from Kansas City. She is also the wife of the Tunisian ambassador to Japan. When she and her husband first met at Indiana University, they remarked on their similarities. "We were both from small farming communities," Lynn said. "My husband, from Tunisia, was the first person in his family to graduate from high school. He is now a Ph.D. in business from Columbia. I am the only one in my family to be a scholar." Her Ph.D. from Indiana University is in French language, literature and civilization.
Lynn remembers clearly how she became interested in languages. She said: "I was in the fourth grade. A family from Holland arrived in our small town, and one of the daughters was put in my class. I remember interrogating her, and demanding, 'Say something in Dutch.' She was my first contact with someone who spoke a foreign language."
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