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 its creator understands its
internal logic;

2. The native language it uses 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 it, you
find yourself spending half your pay 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 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 it, you realize that if
you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.