Originally
appeared in the Boston Book Review.
(Date
Approximate)
HB: What got you interested in the subject of communications
between genders?
DT: After graduating from college in 1966, I lived in Greece for
two years where I became involved in issues of cross-cultural communication. I
was teaching English as a foreign language; a lot of the people who do that are
trained in linguistics. That’s how I first discovered that there was such a
thing.
Back in the States, I got a Master’s Degree in English, taught
remedial writing and English for foreign students, then decided to get a Ph.D.
in linguistics. I attended a linguistics institute in 1973. Luckily the
institute was devoted to language in social context that summer. Had I gone
another summer it’s quite likely I would have concluded linguistics was not for
me.
HB: How were you affected by the politics of the sixties and
seventies, particularly feminist politics?
