A language instructor was explaining to her class that
French nouns, unlike their English
counterparts, are grammatically designated as
masculine or feminine Things like 'chalk' or
'pencil,' she described, would have a gender
association although in English these words were
neutral.
Puzzled, one student raised his hand and asked, "What
gender is a computer?"
The teacher wasn't certain which it was, and so
divided the class into two groups and asked them
to decide if a computer should be masculine or
feminine One group was comprised of the girls in
the class, and the other, of boys Both groups were
asked to give four reasons for their
recommendation.
The group of girls concluded that computers should be
referred to in the masculine gender because:
1- In order to get their attention, you have to turn
them on.
2- They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
3- They are supposed to help you solve your problems,
but half the time they ARE the problem.
4- As soon as you commit to one, you realize that, if
you had waited a little longer, you could
have had a better model.
The boys, on the other hand, decided that computers
should definitely be referred to in the
feminine gender 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 your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term
memory for later retrieval.
As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find
yourself spending half your paycheck on
accessories for it.
CAclubindia
