The Gray Monk

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February 06, 2004

Feminine wiles? Or simply male disinterest?

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 masculine or feminine.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their commendation.

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 review; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check 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 realise that if you had waited a little longer, you could have got a better model.

The women won!

Amazing what the French can argue about!

Posted by The Gray Monk at February 6, 2004 10:14 PM

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» Computers Should be Masculine ... from Dusting My Brain
The women's group concluded that computers should be masculine ('le computer') because: In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on; They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves; They are... [Read More]

Tracked on February 27, 2004 11:46 PM

Comments

Posted by: Cindy at February 11, 2004 01:28 PM