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 women's group concluded that computers should be Masculine (''el
computer''), 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.
(No chuckling... this gets better!)
The men's group, however, decided that ''computer'' should definitely be
of the feminine gender (''la computer''), because: 1. No one but their
creator understands their internal logic; 2. The native language they
use to communicate with other computers is impossible to understand for
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 paycheck on
accessories for it.
The men won.
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