A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. E.g. "House" is feminine - "la casa" while "pencil" 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 a 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 feminine - "la computadora" - because:
1. No one but its creator understands its internal logic;
2. The native language used 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 "computer" should be masculine - "el computador" - because:
1. In order to do anything with it you have to turn it on;
2. It has a lot of data but still can't think for itself;
3. It is supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time it IS 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.
