OT (joke): French lessons

[Edscott Wilson García]

Good one!  FTR, in Spanish the computer is femenine in Mexico (la 
computadora), while in Spain it is masculine (el ordenador). 

On Vie 05 Abr 2002 03:57, Olivier Fourdan wrote:
> A language instructor was explaining to her class that in
> French, nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are
> grammatically designated as masculine and 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 wasn't 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 a masculine or feminine noun.
>
> Both groups were required to give four reasons for their
> recommendation.
>
> The men's group decided the computers 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 retrieval; 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 get their attention, you have to turn them
> on.
>
> 2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless.
>
> 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'd
> waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better
> model.