A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class
that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
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''House'' for instance, is feminine: ''la casa.''
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''Pencil,'' however, is masculine: "el lapiz.''
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A student asked, ''What gender is 'computer'?''
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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.
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Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
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The men's group decided that ''computer'' should definitely be of the feminine gender
(''la computer''), because:
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1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
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2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is impossible to
understand for everyone else;
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3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval;
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4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck
on accessories for it.
(No chuckling... this gets better!) Â
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The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (''el
computer''), because:
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1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
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2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
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3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem;
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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. Â
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The women won!