>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 paycheck 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 if you had waited a little
>longer, you could have gotten a better model.
>
>
>The women won.