A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French, unlike
English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. "House" is
feminine "la maison." "Pencil" is masculine -- "le crayon."
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 their recommendation.
The men's group 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 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.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
masculine ("le 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.
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