>A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns
>unlike their English counterparts are grammatically designated as
>masculine or feminine. "House," in French, is feminine -"la maison."
>"Pencil," in French, is masculine "le crayon."
>
>One puzzled student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?" The teacher did
>not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary.
>
>0So for fun she split the class into two groups. Appropriately enough,
>by gender and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a
>masculine or feminine noun. Both groups were required to give four
>reasons for their recommendation.
>
>The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the
>feminine gender ("la computer"), 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.
>
>The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
>masculine ("le computer"), because:
>
>1.In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;
>2.They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;
>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'd waited a
>little longer, you could have gotten a better model.


Brian Duncombe  [log in to unmask]  http://www.triolet.com
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