Posted 7/28/2023 1:12 PM (GMT 0)
A Spanish teacher was teaching her class about the usage of nouns. How, unlike English, nouns are categorized as masculine or feminine.
“House,” for example, is feminine: “La casa,” she said
“Pencil,” however, is masculine: “El lapiz.”
A student asked, “What gender is the Spanish word for “computer”?
Instead of giving the answer, she decided to do a fun activity. She made two groups of the class, one the boys, the other the girls. She then asked the two groups to discuss whether “computer” in Spanish should be a masculine or a feminine noun, and come up with four reasons in support of their decision.
The boys decided that it should surely be feminine, because:
1. No one but the creator knows their internal logic.
2. The language used by them is incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. However small the mistake, it is stored in long term memory for later use.
4. Just when you decide to commit to one, you find yourself spending more and more on accessories.
The girls said:
"Computer" should definitely be masculine, because:
1. If you want to do something with them, first you have to turn them on.
2. Even though they have all the data, they still can’t think for themselves.
3. Their job is to solve a problem, but most of the time they are the problem.
4. Just when you decide to commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
Faced with such persuasive arguments on both sides, the teacher then informed the class that in real-world Spanish
El computador (masculine)
and
La computadora (feminine)
are BOTH valid and both used, and mean more or less the same thing. The difference in their usage depends on the particular Spanish-speaking country one is in.
Interesting, though, that the Spanish-speakers of the world couldn't make up their minds as to "computer's" gender.
Maybe it was because all of the points the boys and girls made above are valid, and a computer can be as much of a "she" as a "he" to many people!