A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
"House" is feminine -- "la maison." "Pencil" is masculine -- "le crayon."
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 their recommendation.
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 supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem
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 men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
No one but their creator understands their internal logic
The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else
Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval
As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it
