Spanish 101

Spanish 101
>
>
>
> 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
> 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
> ("el computer"), 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!