Subject: Fw: La Computor or El Computor

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class

that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are

designated as either masculine or

feminine. “House” for “lacasa.” “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 impossible to understand for 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.

(No chuckling... this gets better!)

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.