Spanish Computers

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike in English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. “House”, for instance, is feminine: “la casa”. “Pencil”, however, is masculine: “el lapis”.

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 its recommendation.

The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the feminine gender (“la computadora”), because:

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (“el computador”), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
   
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
   
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 had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.