Deborah Tannen is a social linguist, who teaches at the University of Georgetown in Washington D. Tannen was raised in New York with two sisters, Naomi and Miriam. Tannen's father, Eli Tannen, emigrated from Poland at the age of twelve and her mother, Dorothy, is from Russia. Tannen grew up during the depression and her parents struggled at making ends meet; however, her parents always made sure that the girls did not go without. Tannen was a sensitive and shy little girl, who learned how to distinguish when someone was mad or happy through facial expressions and human behavior because she suffered a partial hearing loss at the age of seven, which she now wears hearing aids. Tannen admires her father for the lessons and values he taught her and her sisters, while growing up. Tannen's father taught them that the most important things in life besides possessions was books and ideas. He also highly encouraged them to have positive attitudes and to be considerate of others. Tannen describes her childhood as one of the best learning experiences in her life because of her parents. Tannen and her sisters learned about the world through their parents when they went on countryside road trips as a family. When Tannen was in high school, she walked to and from school reading books. Reading books and keeping journals was Tannen's favorite hobbies and still is today. After Tannen graduated high school, she went to college not knowing what she wanted in life or wanted to do in life. Therefore, after college, Tannen lived at home and work as an insurance adjuster, in order to save up enough money to take a trip around the world to find her existence in life. Finally, in 1966, she found her existence when she visited Greece for the first time; she met and fell in love with a young Greek. When Tannen moved back to the United States with her new husband, Tannen started to realize the difference in her and her husband's personalities, which resulted in a divorce.
