A language teacher was explaining to her class
that in French, nouns are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
·
‘House’ in French is feminine – ‘la maison
-
‘Pencil’ in French is masculine - ‘le crayon
-
One puzzled student asked the gender for
“computers”. The teacher did not know as
the word was not in her French dictionary. So, for fun, she split the class into 2 groups
by gender and asked them to decide whether “computer” should be a masculine or a
feminine noun. Both groups were required
to give 3 reason for their recommendation.
The men’s group decided that the computer
should definitely be of the feminine gender (‘la computer) their reasons were:
·
The native language they use the communicate
with other computer is incomprehensible to everyone else
·
Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long
term memory for possible later review.
·
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”). Their reasons were:
·
They have a lot of data, but still can’t think
for themselves.
·
They are supposed to help solve problems but
half the time they ARE the problem
·
As soon as you commit to one, you realise that
if you had waited a little longer you could have gotten a better model.
Shared from
Accountant’s Corner
Accountant today
February 2006
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