French subject is being taught
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; and
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; and
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.
Raghuram Ekambaram
P.S: Received on email eons ago.
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; and
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; and
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.
Raghuram Ekambaram
P.S: Received on email eons ago.
6 comments:
LOL!! came across this a few times as posts on facebook ... but never in the context of teaching French... and also never was it said that women won ... because both the parties have equal weighing logic for their argument ... why not!!
You don't know Bahrath, times are a changing ... we have to queue behind women!
RE
You are becoming humorous, Raghuram. Great.
Thanks Matheikal, but the compliments are misplaced:) this was an email I received, long time ago. As I was doing some Spring Cleaning of my computer hard drive, I subjected you and others too to this :)))
RE
:) I found both responses good.
Amrit, both are true / valid ... but saying that the "assault" on women is good will get you into trouble, at least in India :)
When do you plan to visit next ... I will have the clubs ready :))
RE
Post a Comment