Pronombres

  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.

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8:12 AM


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