A language teacher 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 was
not in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class
into two
groups appropriately enough, by gender, and asked them to
decide whether
"computer" should be a masculine of a feminine noun.
Both groups were
required to give four reasons for their 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 pay on accessories
for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
masculine ('le 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.
