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
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 (”el 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.
