Thursday, March 4, 2010

MASCULINE OR FEMININE

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 money 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 had you waited a little longer, you could have got a
better model.


The women won.

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