Genres and computers.

[rcalvom@ctv.es]

Hi, Junguerites

Just a little joke about genres and computers; and the paradoxes
of a computer´s view:

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 didn't know and subsequently
divided the class into 2 groups
and asked them to decide if a computer should
be masculine or feminine.
One group was comprised of the women in the
class, and the other, of
the men.  Both groups were asked to give 4
reasons for their
recommendation.

The group of women 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 men, 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.
4.As soon as you make a commitment to one,
you find yourself
spending half your paycheck on
accessories for it.

Best regards
roberto