Posted:
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. 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 or feminine
noun.
Both groups were required to give four
reasons for their recommendation.
The women's group decided 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
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.
The men's group, however, concluded 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 languagethey 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
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you
find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for
it.
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. 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 or feminine
noun.
Both groups were required to give four
reasons for their recommendation.
The women's group decided 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
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.
The men's group, however, concluded 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 languagethey 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
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you
find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for
it.
CID
