Imen speaks five languages - French and Arabic, which she learned at school, German, which she studied at high school, English and now Chinese.

Despite her linguistic background, she found Mandarin study difficult in the beginning. Talking with her Chinese teachers outside of class also improved her speaking.

"I became the tour guide for my Chinese teachers, taking them to interesting places in my hometown, and they would correct my pronunciation during our conversations," she says.

"Campus life in Beijing is different from Tunisia," Imen says. "I was restricted to my life at home and school in Tunisia, but I made a lot of friends and joined many club activities in Beijing."

[Photo/China Daily]

She is now secretary-general of the African Students' Association at Peking University, and she also delivers speeches on the history of the Maghreb region.

"I am very interested in history as it is a subject full of mystery," she says. "Whenever I come to a historical site, I imagine how people lived there during the old times, and I think about what they wore and ate."

Imen's hometown, Sidi Bou Said, is in northern Tunisia, close to the ancient city of Carthage.

"My hometown is a famous tourist spot, and I found China has many places for traveling too," she says.

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"Guilin is my favorite place, as it has the most beautiful natural scenery in the world."

Imen hopes in the future to establish a research center in Chinese studies in Tunisia.

There is only one research center for Chinese studies in Africa, and that's in South Africa, she says. "Other research centers doing Asian studies tend to focus on Japan, and it would be meaningful to have more research centers in Chinese studies established in Africa."

liaoxue@chinadaily.com.cn