*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 th em 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 comp utadora"),*
*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.**
**
(THIS GETS BETTER!)*< B> *
**
**The women's group,** **however, conclu ded*
*that computers should be Masculine*
*("el computador"),because:** *
*1. In order to do anything*
*with them,** **you have to turn them on;**
**
**2. They have a lot of data*
*< SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 24pt; COLOR: black;
FONT-FAMILY: Papyrus">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.*
