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Judy Loux
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« on: January 23, 2002, 12:20:07 pm » |
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A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns
unlike their English counterparts, 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, "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 that 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.
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.
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.
The women won.
DDiva
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smitkit
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« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2002, 01:37:10 pm » |
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Heehee ... nice one ... this ones going round our IT department!!!
Smitkit
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chris68
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« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2002, 02:17:55 pm » |
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This is cute, thanks for the giggle! Chris68
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff  |
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radaro
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« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2002, 05:12:27 pm » |
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Just for the record, I think computer is l'ordinateur (masc)
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ozbound
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« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2002, 07:55:39 pm » |
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Hee hee hee--that's really good!  |
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daisylee
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« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2002, 04:07:21 pm » |
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Make me think of the word "hurricanes"....why aren't they called "Himacanes"? We all know that one's wrong! (Hey, I've live in the eye of "Himacane Randy" for years now!, so I ought to know!)
Daisylee
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