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 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 computadora ' ), 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!)

The women ' s group, however, concluded 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 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.