"EL GENERO"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.