A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
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'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,'20however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'
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A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'
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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.
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The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:
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1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
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2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
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3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
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4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
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The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because:
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1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
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2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
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3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
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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.
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The women won.
