Learning French

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Obvious Leo
Posts: 2501
Joined: April 28th, 2013, 10:03 pm
Favorite Philosopher: Omar Khayyam
Location: Australia

Learning French

Post by Obvious Leo »

A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" for instance, is feminine -"la maison." "Pencil", however, is masculine -"le crayon."

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 their recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" 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 packet on accessories for it.



The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine -"le computer", 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 realise that if you had waited a little longer, you could have a better model.
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Philosophy Explorer
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Joined: May 25th, 2013, 8:41 pm

Re: Learning French

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

Since they normally have a joystick, I would say masculine.

PhilX
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ThamiorTheThinker
Posts: 281
Joined: October 21st, 2015, 9:07 pm
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Re: Learning French

Post by ThamiorTheThinker »

I realize that this post is a year and a half old at this point... But how in Zeus' Butthole is this related to philosophy... The philosophy of/in the arts, no less?
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LuckyR
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Re: Learning French

Post by LuckyR »

Not bad. But I though that reason #4 from the girls was going to come from the boys...
"As usual... it depends."
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