ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an account of the author's experiences as a student, a teacher and an interpreter of English in China. As a student of English at college, the author discovered that the attitude of male and female students during lessons differed, for girls were much more active in the classroom, more willing to raise and answer questions. On becoming an English teacher, she taught classes of twenty people, with approximately the same number of women and men. The author observed the different attitudes to learning English among her female and male students. Being an interpreter was a very privileged job. Besides the immediate financial advantages, it was also a job which gave the author many opportunities to work with foreigners. She was interested to note that whenever disputes occurred, the women interpreters tended to calm them down and bear the brunt of people’s anger.
