Masculine or Feminine?
A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are not genderless but are designated as either masculine or feminine. House for instance, is feminine: la casa and Pencil, however, is masculine: el lapiz. A student then asked, What gender would a computer be? Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into a male and female group, and asked each group to decide for themselves as to 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:
A. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
B. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
C. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and finally
D. 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 definitely 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.
A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are not genderless but are designated as either masculine or feminine. House for instance, is feminine: la casa and Pencil, however, is masculine: el lapiz. A student then asked, What gender would a computer be? Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into a male and female group, and asked each group to decide for themselves as to 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:
A. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
B. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
C. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and finally
D. 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 definitely 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.