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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 paycheck 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.
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