A SPANISH
Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike
English, nouns are designated as either masculine or
feminine.
'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,'however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'
A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'
Instead of giving the answer, the
teacher split the class into two
groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men's group decided that
'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la
computadora'), because:
1. No one but their creator
understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they
use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible
to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in
long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your pay check on accessories for it.
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
Masculine ('el computador'), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they
ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that
if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a
better model.
The women won.
